Who Do You Love?
by MASC
Summary: Sequel to The Trinity. When Sportacus' nephew comes to LazyTown, he and Stephanie begin a strong friendship together. But will it evolve into something more? And what is he hiding? And what secrets will Robbie uncover when he taps into Sportacus' mind?
1. Relativity

**_A/N: O_kay, I thought long and hard about it so now I've decided to make "The Trinity" into a series. Why!? Peer pressure, I guess. So if you've read "The Trinity", then you'll know what I'm-a talking about here! Characters, events, places, stuff like that? All here, baby! Yeah! …Sorry.**

**_Disclaimer:_ LazyTown isn't mine! How many times must you mock me, oh cruel fate!? Be gone with you!**

"**Who Do You Love?"**

_**(One month after "The Trinity"…)**_

A new day dawned on the always neighborly LazyTown as Sportacus' airship was coming to an immediate halt in between some clouds. The town's hero in blue lowered himself from the platform of the ship and bungeed the rest of the way down onto the courtyard. As usual, the neighborhood kids greeted him with open arms and bright cheery faces.

"Sportacus!" They all exclaimed.

"Hi everybody!" The hero greeted them. "I'll be back to play in a little bit. But right now I've got something important to do. I'll see you later!"

And with that, he sprinted across the fields, flipped over almost every wall and practically rolled his way past the people of LazyTown until he reached the door of the Town Hall. A knock on the door and Sportacus was immediately greeted by Ms. Busybody.

"Good morning, Sportacus." She smiled. "Milford's waiting for you in his office."

"Thank you." He nodded as he went inside.

Milford anxiously placed folder upon folder of work papers into a small briefcase as he then tidied up his office. When Sportacus walked in, the man almost had a heart attack but knew everything would be under control.

"Oh, Sportacus!" He sighed. "It's only you. I want to thank you again for agreeing to look after Stephanie while I'm away."

"It's no problem, Mayor." He smiled. "I'm always happy to help."

"Yes, thank you. She's at home right now, finishing her breakfast. I'm on my way back to say goodbye. Will you accompany me?"

"Sure thing."

At home, Stephanie finished washing her plate and put it on the rack to dry when Sportacus and her uncle entered the living room.

"Stephanie?" The Mayor called out. "I'm leaving now!"

"Bye uncle!" Stephanie said as she ran out of the kitchen and hugged the man tight. "Have fun on your trip!"

"Yes, well you be sure to be careful while I'm away." He winked at her, knowing Sportacus had her back. "Now goodbye, my dear!"

"Bye!" Stephanie and Sportacus waved as the man walked off.

Sportacus looked at his watch then back over to Stephanie. "Well? What do you want to do first?"

* * *

Inside his lair, Robbie looked through his periscope and watched as the mayor drove away from town. Raising the device back up to the ceiling, the resident villain crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Oh, sure! The Mayor's gone but what about Sportadorka!? He's still here!" He pouted. "Why is it I can never get rid of the right person!?" 

With a sigh and a shrug, Robbie took to his fuzzy orange chair, reclined it all the way back and turned on the tube. _(That's retro 80's talk for "television" for you young'n's out there.) _

"Oh well." Robbie caved. "It's like the Stones say. 'You can't always get what you want'. But have I really gotten what I need?" Another shrug and the channel surfing continued.

* * *

Out in the park, Stephanie and Sportacus were already underway with their warm-up exercises as Ziggy, Trixie, Pixel and the rest of LazyTown's children met up with them. It seemed like having a resident superhero that encouraged healthy activity to the children was an advantage for the grownups to carry on with their important, daily tasks without any hassle. And on the plus side, Sportacus loved every minute of it. 

However, Stephanie couldn't help but notice Sportacus keep glancing at his watch every 10 minutes. The hero in blue was still well focused on his warm-ups but the constant vigil on his watch was only making her more and more curious.

As Sportacus and the children stopped for a rest on the grass, Stephanie caught the resident hero looking at his watch once more.

"Are you okay, Sportacus?" She finally asked him. "You keep looking at your watch? Is it your pulse or something?"

"Oh, no. Nothing like that." He reassured her. "I'm just… waiting for something."

"Oh."

"How 'bout I go get us some snacks? Want to come?"

"Sure!" She jumped up in anticipation.

As the two walked off, Pixel and Trixie noticed Ziggy climbing up a tree yet again. Exchanging glances, the two decided to hang around the bottom and anticipate his eventual drop.

"You're only gonna fall again, Ziggy!" Trixie called up to him.

Ziggy struggled through the leaves and turned his head. "I'm just looking for--"

"For candy!" They interrupted him.

"Yeah, we know, Ziggy." Pixel rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I swear some things never change."

Trixie nodded. "Yeah. Take Sportacus and Pinky for example."

"Huh?" That annoying kid Ritchie scratched his head. "What do you mean?"

"Well look at 'em. They're always hanging around with each other more than anyone else."

"Is that bad?" Pixel asked.

"No. I just think it's kind of cute."

One of the kids gagged. "Cute? Cute!?"

"Well, yeah! They're almost like… _siblings _or something!"

A long and curious pause dwelled amongst the children as they all developed the same suspicion. Trixie placed a hand on her chin and began to think out loud.

"Y'know..." She grinned. "They're both really active. Moderately faster and more agile than any one of us."

Pixel nodded along. "They're both matched for speed, maybe. I'd say Sportacus is only slightly faster since he's older and more in tune with his body."

Ziggy was the only one to look back and forth in confusion, still leaning against the tree branch. "Huh? What's going on? What are you guys talking about?"

"Wow." Trixie got that wide-eyed look again. "Do you think maybe it's possible? Sportacus and Stephanie are really…"

* * *

"Brother and sister!?" Robbie retracted his periscope. "_Those_ two!? Y'know, come to think of it, it might actually be possible!" 

After a few seconds of thought, Robbie shook off the possibility. "No, no! It can't be! Sportakook's from another side of the tracks! And Pinky… hey, wait a minute. I don't know where she's from! Hey! They really _could _be brother and sister! But how!?"

Robbie paced back and forth in his lair, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. "If they're related, how is it they were total strangers from the beginning? Were they separated at birth? No, Blue Boy's older than she is! Hmm… could she have been born and he didn't even know about it?"

He then gasped. "Ooh! Could he and his parents be estranged? How could I have overlooked this possibility? And more importantly, how can I use this to my advantage!?"

* * *

Later that day, Sportacus had decided to help the kids build a zip line in the park for everyone to enjoy. While Sportacus and some of his little helpers set up the base on the grass, Stephanie was busy working on the starting line, nailing the brackets against the entry of the treehouse. 

"Be careful, Pinky!" Trixie called out to her friend.

"Don't worry." She hammered a nail in. "I've got my safety wire hooked up"

Giving the treehouse a once-over, little Ritchie gulped. "Oh, man. Why did we build that thing so high up in the first place?"

"Don't be such a baby, Ritchie." A random girl teased. Let's call her… I don't know. Gloria. Yeah, that's it. Gloria. _(Oh, shaz, all these kids need a name now.)_

"Yeah." Trixie concurred. "That's the whole point of zip-lining!"

As Stephanie finished nailing the brackets together, she noticed a minor fault in the zip line and decided to fix it.

"Hey, Sportacus!" She called out. "That line's a little crooked! I'm gonna straighten it out!"

"All right, be careful!" He reminded her.

"I will." She immediately took to pulling out the nail she had hammered in.

However, removing the nail wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. Pulling on the hammer with both her hands and using all her might, Stephanie managed to loosen the bracket but the force caused her to fall back and dangle from her safety wire.

"Sportacus!" She called out.

"Stephanie?" Sportacus could see a pink blur swinging around in the distance as his crystal went off. "Oh, no… Hang on, Stephanie!"

As Stephanie continued swinging upside down, the elastic on her wire began to wear out. Trixie and the others gasped at the sight, knowing Sportacus only had a few seconds before their friend would fall to injury.

"Oh no!" The pink one screamed as her wire broke, causing her to descend.

"Stephanie!" The hero yelled, knowing he was too late.

But before any harm could befall the young girl in pink, the immediate silence of Sportacus' crystal caught everyone's attention. After a quick glimpse at their hero, they all turned their heads to see a complete and utter stranger in a casual green and khaki outfit carrying Stephanie in his arms.

"Oh, thank you Sportacus." Stephanie sighed with relief until she looked up to see her savior was not who she thought it was. "Sporta…cus?"

"Hi." The young man said, his emerald green eyes almost putting Stephanie in a trance.

"…Hi." She said softly.

"Can you walk?"

"Uh-huh." She slowly nodded, keeping eye contact with the boy. This, of course, caused her to contradict herself as she tripped over her own foot and landed in the boy's arms again.

"Sorry." She smiled nervously.

"No problem. I was a slow learner myself."

Sportacus immediately ran up to the two with the kids behind him. "Clyde!"

"Uncle Sporty!" The boy hugged the man in blue.

"You made it!"

"Yeah. Just in time, too." He gestured towards Stephanie, who for some reason couldn't keep her eyes off him. "Hey, is she gonna be alright?"

"Stephanie?" Sportacus waved his hand in front of her.

Once she realized what she was doing, she immediately snapped out of her so-called 'trance' and gave everybody a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks!"

"Who is that?" One of the kids asked.

"Did he just call you 'uncle'?" Ziggy pointed out.

Sportacus proudly nodded as he patted the young boy on the back. "Yup. Kids, I want you to meet my nephew. His name is Clyde."

The young boy waved at the awestruck children. "Hello."

"Wow, look at that!" Ziggy pointed up in the sky.

Everyone looked up to see another airship, similar to Sportacus' but with a green and lime color scheme, hovering in the sky with its propellers rotating on the bottom.

"You brought the Track-1." Sportacus said to his nephew.

"Track-1?" Stephanie asked.

"On account of my name." Clyde began to explain. "Clyde is short for 'Clydesdale'. Y'know, like the horse?"

"Oh. Cute." She then panicked. "I mean, the fact you were named after a horse is cute! I didn't mean it like… I mean, you're cute too! I mean not that I'd, uhh…" Stephanie nervously looked around in a stutter before finally running home embarrassed.

"Stephanie?" Sportacus watched her run off. "That's funny. She never acts this way around strangers."

Clyde just shrugged. "Well, I wouldn't say we're strangers anymore, are we?"

The kids all shouted, "No!"

"Great! Hey, I know! How's about we go and give this zip line a try?"

"Yeah!"

As the kids all ran up the treehouse, Clyde pulled his uncle aside. "Hey, Uncle Sporty?"

"Yeah?" Sportacus leaned in closer.

"Who is that girl?"

"She's a good friend of mine. Her name is Stephanie. She's your age, I think. Maybe a year younger."

"Oh. Cool."

Sportacus then noticed by the look in his nephew's eye that something was stirring inside the boy. "Okay, Clyde. What is it?"

The boy just snapped. "Nothing!"

* * *

"It's wrong!" Robbie retracted his periscope yet again. "Wrong, I tell you! Wrong! Now there's _three_ of them! Pinky, Blue Boy and now this Green Guy!" 

A new thought popped into his mind. "But if he's Sportakook's nephew, then the sibling theory is all wrong! Unless… no, that doesn't make any sense. But… what if I made them believe they really _were_ brother and sister? Yes… then that green kid could start to wonder about his own existence and who his real family is."

Robbie then cackled. "Yes! Then he'll hate Sportacreep for lying to him this whole time! A family will be broken, a friendship will shatter and the embodiment of human laziness will reign supreme once again! Ooh, Robbie! You're so fiendishly clever, it's not even funny! But how am I gonna pull this off? And where do I begin?"

* * *

Inside Stephanie's room later that night, the pink-haired girl wrote in her diary about the new boy she had just met. She jotted down how he saved her life, how he was related to Sportacus and how she felt this weird tingle every time she looked at him but couldn't explain why. 

A knock on the door and Sportacus stuck his head in. "Stephanie? Are you okay?"

The girl simply nodded. "I'm fine. I'm just getting ready to turn in for the night."

"Okay. If you need anything, Clyde and I will be in the living room."

"Clyde's here!?" She immediately pulled herself under the sheets.

"Is something wrong?"

"No! Nothing!" Her voice was muffled.

Sportacus just shrugged as he closed the door and sat on the couch next to Clyde, who was fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt.

"So her uncle's the mayor, huh?" He asked.

Sportacus just nodded. "Yeah. He's a good man. And she's a good kid. She recently helped save the town from a demented lunatic."

"Really? I know a lot of those. Which one?"

"Remus Tard. The founder of LazyTown."

"Nah, I don't know him." He shook his head. "So the mayor just left you with babysitting duty, huh?"

"He trusts me."

"I don't think Stephie trusts me."

"You mean _Stephanie_."

"Whatever."

Sportacus turned his head back to make sure Stephanie's door was closed then moved in closer to the young boy. In a serious tone, giving his a nephew a stare just as serious, Sportacus begin to speak again.

"Clyde." He started. "You're sure the doctors said you were cured."

For a moment, the young boy sat still and silent before giving his answer. "Yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"They said I was as cured as I'll ever be. So I naturally assumed that to be a good thing."

The hero gave him an uneasy stare. "But is it?"

"Well… I can still feel at night sometimes. The tension, you know? But I don't let it build up. Because if I do…"

Sportacus interrupted. "I know, Clyde. I know what happens."

Clyde simply nodded and caught his breath. "But I haven't had an attack in months. _I'd _say that's a good sign."

"Me too." Sportacus gave his nephew a warm smile before looking back over to Stephanie's room. "We'd better keep it down. Stephanie's probably asleep by now."

"Yeah."

But Stephanie was not asleep. She stood idly behind her door, accidentally overhearing the conversation between the two with her hand over her mouth in shock.

"Whoa." She whispered to herself. "Clyde must really be sick. But he seems so fit and healthy."

Stephanie, deciding not to worry much about it, crawled back into bed and turned out the light. Hopefully by tomorrow, she'd get a chance to properly get to know Sportacus' nephew. And maybe, just maybe, figure out why she had such a strange panic attack around him.

* * *

**_A/N:_ Oh, dear God… Well, as you've probably guessed, I'm aiming towards a potential love story here. Ugh… my stomach… oh, man… I don't know why. I've never done this sort of thing before. Hopefully it won't backfire. I'll be back soon, provided of course, I haven't drowned in my own vomit. Why? Why!? **


	2. Rivalry

_**A/N: Sorry for the delay. My computer and I were feeling a bit under the weather. Strange how we're connected that way, isn't it? Oh well. No matter. On with the story…**_

**Chapter 2**

The next morning, Clyde tossed and turned in his bed as his airship hovered still and silently above LazyTown.

"No…" He muttered in his sleep, the sweat beginning to build up. "No… stop it… go away… make it… stop… no… _no_!"

The young boy awoke and breathed heavily as he ran his fingers along his short black hair. With a heavy sigh, he laid back and stared directly at the ceiling before turning his attention to his clock.

"Seven" He grumbled. "Barely?"

Clyde sighed and got out of bed, heading over to the bathroom. He washed his face and wiped the sweat away then walked over to a different part of his airship.

"Cabinet." He said, activating a wall panel that opened up and revealed a whole set of orange tubes.

Clyde then fingered through his prescription labels and grabbed the pills he needed for the day to help prevent an attack. After downing two of the red pills with a glass of water, Clyde returned the medicine to its original place and sat down on his bed.

"Oh, boy…" He groaned, feeling the side-effects of his medicine. "Okay, Clyde. You can do this. Just relax. No pressure. No tension. Just… _relax_."

That same morning, Stephanie awoke and found Sportacus cooking breakfast in the kitchen. The above average hero simply winked at the young girl as she took a seat at the table.

"Good morning!" He said.

"Morning." A smile spread across her face. "Where's Clyde?"

"Probably sleeping still. He's bound to have a few rough nights before getting settled in here. He's got a…" Sportacus immediately caught himself and changed the subject quickly. Clyde's sickness was something he didn't want to inform Stephanie or the others about just yet.

"Hey." He continued. "How about a game of basketball after breakfast?"

Stephanie eagerly nodded. "Sure."

"Great."

But of course, Stephanie wasn't dumb. She knew Sportacus was about to say something about Clyde's illness and decided to see if he'd tell her.

"You mentioned Clyde a few seconds ago. What does he have?" Stephanie's face grew curious as she took a bite of her pancakes.

"Oh…" Sportacus tried to dodge the question. "…Nothing. I completely forgot what I was going to say."

"Oh." The pink-haired girl just shrugged. She was going to play along with his little charade, for now at least.

* * *

At Lazy Hills Retirement Home, a very annoyed Stingy went around the tables and handed out the old folks their medicine while wearing a clean, white orderly's uniform.

"Stupid Trixie…" He grumbled under his breath. "…Frame _me_, will you? I'll get you back one of these days."

Days ago, Stingy had become a pawn in Trixie's latest gag, which involved the city zoo, some pliers, a bag of fireworks and an endless supply of duct tape. Without going into too much detail, Stingy unwillingly took the fall for Trixie's prank while she got away with a clean streak. As punishment, Stingy was ordered by Mayor Meanswell himself to 48 hours of community service. On the surface, two days of taking care of a bunch of old people didn't seem so bad but Stingy, of course, had to learn the awful truth eventually.

"Hey, kid!" One of the residents called out, waving a cane around. "You got my medicine?"

"I'm coming, Mr. Johansen." The sleepy-eyed brat said. "Just let me…"

"Medicine!" He interrupted.

"I'm on it! Just let…"

"Now!"

"I'm…"

"Medicine!"

"I said I'm on it!" Stingy was about to lose it.

In an instant, Stingy scrambled over to the old man's chair and presented him with a plastic cup of two little white pills. "There you go, Mr. Johansen."

"They're the wrong ones!" He spat them out. "You're trying to poison me! You little brat!"

"Oh, for the love of…"

Meanwhile, in the far back of the recreation room, a lonesome old man sat in his wheelchair and looked out the window as the children played outside in the park. Long ago, he had founded a town where the people were meant to be lazy so no one could get hurt or lost from their loved ones. Long ago, he had a power that only he understood yet it consumed him from within. Long ago, he was somebody people could look up to.

Bitter from his defeat by an overly pink young girl, an elderly Remus Tard scowled at the sight of Stephanie as she and Sportacus played a game of one on one in the court.

"I specifically asked to be seated _away_ from the window." He grumbled. "Even here, I can't satisfaction."

While prying eyes were away from the sinister old man, he took out an old sketchbook of plans and blueprints unused by the already vile yet loveable resident villain, Robbie Rotten. Flipping through the pages, Remus could find nothing he liked that would help him regain power over his town.

"Rotten, what kind of idiots do you take these people for?" He shook his head as he read some of the plans aloud. "What is this? 'Plan #213: Turn pink cheerleader's hair into cotton candy and unleash a pack of hungry squirrels to go after her?' No, that would never work."

He turned the page and found another plan that was, quite literally, out of this world. "He can't be serious about this one. 'Plan #304: Trap Pinky and Sportakook in satellite, launch them into space and force them to watch cheesy movies… the worst I can find.' Huh? What?"

"Hello, Mr. Tard." One of the other orderlies greeted the man as he opened the window. "You look like you could use a whiff of fresh air."

"What's so fresh about it?" Tard typically uttered like the curmudgeon he is.

At that moment, when the window opened, a gentle breeze went through the old man and aroused something in him that hadn't been felt in a while. He closed his eyes and absorbed the cool air, knowing that there was something much more out there that was making him feel this way.

"The energy…" He whispered. "…I can feel it. It's still there." After a moment, Remus opened his eyes and noticed Stingy was standing right next to him, giving a very disturbed look.

"You're weird. You know that?" Was all he said before he turned and walked away.

But just as he was about to head into the hallway, Stingy was halted by yet another one of the elderly men. Annoyed more than ever, Stingy slowly turned around to face him.

"Did ya get me my Cheeze Whiz, boy?" The old man inquired.

Without saying a word, Stingy reached into his pocket and tossed the old man his desired can of processed cheese product before finally walking away.

* * *

Outside, Clyde descended from the Track-01 and met up with the gang at the park, wearing his usual green shirt and khakis. Stephanie was met with a simple wave and smile, which for some reason didn't seem to make her weak at the knees this time. This proved to be a good sign for the young girl, as it allowed her to stay more focused on the game and with her friends as they played.

"How 'bout a new game?" Pixel suggested. "We'll break into teams."

"Yeah but who do we elect as captains?" Ziggy asked. "Ooh! I know! Stephanie and Sportacus can be the captains!"

"Okay, I guess." Stephanie shrugged as she looked over to Sportacus.

But Sportacus had an even better idea. "How about we let Clyde be a captain?"

"Yeah, how 'bout it Clyde?" Stephanie nudged the boy, practically challenging him.

"Well… all right." He said as Stephanie handed him the ball.

Clyde's team consisted of Trixie and Pixel while Stephanie's consisted of Sportacus and Ziggy. Once the game got underway, a friendly rivalry was brewing between the girl in pink and the boy in green. As one team scored, the other caught up with ease. There was a building tension between the two captains but nothing too serious for Sportacus to worry about. The pink-haired girl dribbled the ball around the court and attempted to shoot it towards the basket but Clyde quickly intercepted the shot and passed it over to Trixie, who was more than happy to make the score.

"You're good." Stephanie said out of breath as she received the ball.

After checking, Stephanie took off like a bullet and passed the ball over to Sportacus who used his lightning fast reflexes to dodge his nephew's stealing attempts and eventually tossed it back over to Stephanie. She and Ziggy tossed the ball back and forth to each other, completely overwhelming Clyde's team and managed to score.

"…You're not too bad yourself." Clyde winked, amazed at Stephanie's abilities.

As the game continued, the two teams noticed something a bit odd. It appeared as if the two captains were now playing against each other as two individuals and not as a group. In other words, what started as two teams going at it, quickly turned into a game of one-on-one. Stephanie, the "pink cheerleader" as Robbie would call her, and Sportacus' nephew Clyde were now ignoring their teammates and testing each other's abilities by remaining focused on the prize and not backing down for a second.

"Do they even see us anymore?" Trixie thought aloud.

"I don't know." Ziggy just shrugged.

Sportacus, of course, could obviously see what was going on but didn't say anything aloud. For all he knew, he could have been wrong.

"I guess they just got a little caught up in the game." The hero in blue shrugged.

"Well _that_ was fun while it lasted." Pixel sighed.

Minutes passed and the game between the two was still going strong, however neither one of them had scored yet and it was obvious they were starting to wear out.

"You keep taking that ball like it's yours, Clyde." Stephanie playfully taunted. "If Stingy was here, there'd be no way he'd let you take it from him."

"Oh, yeah?" Clyde said as he twirled around Stephanie and readied to shoot.

But something prevented him from doing so. Just as he was about to make the basket, something inside told him to purposely lower his aim and allow the pink-haired girl to easily swipe the ball away from him. The steal was made and Stephanie finally scored, thus ending the game.

"That was a good game!" Stephanie wiped the sweat from her brow. "Nice try, Clyde."

"Yeah." The boy just grinned, knowing what he had done.

"Hey, maybe I can show you a few pointers." She then paused for a second. "Y'know… if… if you _want_."

Clyde just nodded. "You know what? I think I'd like that."


	3. Bonding

**Chapter 3**

In Robbie's lair, the town villain hammered away at a new machine he knew would give him the edge he needed to separate Clyde from Stephanie and Sportacus. The only problem after that would be to separate Stephanie from Sportacus but he decided he'd work on that later.

"Okay!" He said to himself as he crawled under the machine. "Time to do some wiring!"

Using his various tools for the job, Robbie began to secure the wiring beneath the machine and toggled with the switches that would enable him to turn it on and off. Afterwards, he adjusted two reclining seats to connect to machine from each side. Testing the recliners, Robbie nodded approvingly and headed for his worktable.

"And now…" He started again, raising a bowl-shaped device with various buttons on it. "…The finishing touch."

Outside the retirement home, Remus wheeled himself along the garden as other residents sat on the lawn furniture. Remus could feel that strange aura emanating from the air and inhaled it with a passion. This, of course, led to more staring from a certain sleepy-eyed brat.

"You're still weird!" Stingy called out as he walked by.

"Bite me!" Remus grumbled before speaking to himself in a soft tone. "I can feel it… it's still here… the aura. I must… but…"

Then, like so many men his age often do, Remus blacked out and went to sleep. Apparently he did a little too much thinking and it took quite a toll on his elderly mind, so a nap was probably the best course of action to deal with it.

* * *

Later that day, while Sportacus was out patrolling the town and the other children were at home, Stephanie went for a walk in the park and eventually found a bench to sit on. Once she did, she whipped out her diary and began writing more about Sportacus' intriguing young nephew. She knew she was going to get along with him just fine but the mystery surrounding his illness intrigued her even more. What was wrong with him? Why was Sportacus keeping it a secret? Questions like these were constantly on her mind. But there was another that kept jabbing at her like a stick. 

"Why do I get this strange feeling when I'm around him?" She asked aloud to no one in particular.

"When you're around who?" Clyde startled the pink-haired girl as he leapt from behind a wall.

"No one!" She quickly hid the diary in her little pink purse.

"Oh." Clyde nodded before doing some sit-ups on the wall.

Stephanie could then see the similarities between Clyde and his uncle, which aroused yet another question to pop in her mind.

"Hey, Clyde?" She asked. "Are you a superhero too?"

"What, like Uncle Sporty?" He twirled around and sat on the wall. "Not really. I mean, I'm what you would call a 'hero-in-training'. Sure, I got my own suit and everything but I don't think I'm ready to carry on such a big responsibility just yet."

"Why not?"

"Well, I still have a lot of training ahead of me."

"What? You're good!"

"Thanks. That's sweet of you but I know you're lying."

"Hey!" She giggled. "You know I'm not!"

"Yeah, whatever." He joked. "Sure, I'm decent… I guess. But I'm still nowhere near as good as Uncle Sporty."

"But if you were a superhero, would you protect LazyTown with him?"

"It doesn't really work that way." Clyde began to explain. "Back where we come from, we have loads of superheroes running around the place. But only one gets the honor of being the official representative for our land and travel around the world with that title. Uncle Sporty just happens to be that representative. And they take it in turns so when one retires, they give the next representative the next number in line."

"Which would explain why Sportacus has a '10' on his chest. Because he took over from Remus."

"Number 9, you mean?"

"It's a long story." Stephanie chuckled. "And what about the other superheroes?"

"Oh, they do their part. They take care of our homeland just as good as any other. I mean, they can travel around if they want to also. Just not as a representative. For the ones in training, like myself, I get to travel around for the benefit of knowing my surroundings a little better."

"And you don't think you're ready for the hero gig?"

"No."

"Are you… scared?"

Clyde just shrugged. "Sort of. But not from what you'd expect."

"If it's not the danger of the job then what could it be?"

"Mostly because of my medical--" The boy slapped his own mouth shut and looked away. A brief pause and he let off a small chuckle. "…Let's just say I don't work well under pressure."

Another pause and Stephanie looked down while Clyde lowered himself to the ground. After a moment, Stephanie finally looked back up at Clyde with a sincere look on her face.

"You're sick, aren't you?" She asked him. "I accidentally overheard you and Sportacus talking last night."

Clyde simply nodded. "Yes."

"Do you mind if I ask what it is you have?"

"I don't mind, really. I just wish I could tell you what it was."

"You mean you don't know?"

Clyde nodded again. "I know. I just don't think you or anyone else would understand."

"Why wouldn't we?"

"No one ever does. The looks they gave me back home. The rumors that spread. I couldn't handle it. When they put me on the medication, I thought it was over but…"

"But what?"

With a heavy sigh, Clyde held up his right hand and balled it into a fist. "I can still feel it. It's never gone. It's just… _there_. It's killing me from the inside. The pills only numb the pain but they don't make it go away."

Stephanie got up from the bench and slowly walked over to Clyde. She put her arm on his shoulder and tried to comfort him to the best of her ability.

"Clyde, I'm sorry." She said softly. "I didn't know it made you feel uncomfortable talking about it."

"No, it's okay." He smiled at her. "I'm actually kind of glad I could share it with someone my age, you know?"

"Still. I shouldn't have asked."

"It's okay, Stephanie. Really."

"I'm always here if you ever need someone to talk to." She assured the boy in green.

"I'm glad."

* * *

Robbie gagged at the sight of the two new friends bonding while holding his periscope firmly. "Oh, that's just nasty! The pink girl and the green guy getting all friendly! It's sick, I tell you!" 

He then stroked his chin, remembering Clyde's aforementioned illness. "But it's intriguing nonetheless." He then shook his head, trying not to sway from his current plan.

"No, no!" He growled. "Pinky and Blue Boy first! After they alienate Green Guy, then I'll find out what's eating him! Haha! Perfect!"

* * *

Stephanie let off another small giggle, much to Clyde's amusement and curiosity. "What's so funny?" 

"Oh, nothing. I just noticed you don't have an accent like your uncle does."

"Oh." He grinned. "Yeah, well it's kind of hard to have an accent when you speak over 5 different languages."

Stephanie's eyes widened. "Wow, really? Five?"

"It's embarrassing, I know, but… I'm kind of a nerd."

"You're right. That _is _embarrassing." Stephanie playfully nudged Clyde.

"Oh!" Clyde jokingly clasped his heart. "Be still, my heart! I've been deceived by an angel in pink!"

"I'm sorry!" She laughed some more. "No, really. I think it's cute. And anyways, at least you're not practically married to a computer like Pixel is."

"Yeah, talk about whipped." Clyde said under his breath.

"Hey, why don't we go see what he's up to?"

A bit hesitant at first, Clyde looked around and shrugged. "Yeah, all right."

As they walked off, it wasn't until they reached Pixel's house when they realized they were holding hands. In a panic, they separated and got that awkward silence where only a nervous laugher could break it.

"Wow, I didn't see that." Stephanie started to turn red. "Sorry!"

"No, no! M-my fault!" Clyde stuttered. "I should have… uhh… Man! How did that happen!?"

"Yeah. We should just…" She signaled towards Pixel's house. "Y'know…"

"Sure!"

After that awkward moment, Stephanie and Clyde headed for the door while Robbie continued working on his latest scheme. Unaware, however, that Remus was now concocting a new scheme of his own to return to power and take control of not only LazyTown, but all of the Trinity.

_**A/N: Sorry. I know you like 'em longer. But I'm afraid I've come down with a rather nasty illness of my own. Surprisingly, it's lasted for a week now and I still show no signs of improvement. You may be wondering why I even bothered posting another chapter if I'm so sick. Why? Because I'm crazy! And I can't leave you guys hanging. It's bad manners, really. If you don't see from me next week, don't be surprised. Anyways, here's hoping I feel better soon…**_


	4. Mommy Dearest

_**A/N: Rejoice one and all! I have beaten the sickness! The sickness is down! I am victorious! Now enough of this banter and on with the story. Or as I'd like to quote one of my favorite lines, "And now for something completely different…"**_

**Chapter 4**

"It never gets any easier!" Pixel complained as he dropped the game controller on the floor. "There's no way I can reach level 40 without spending my skill points! It's impossible!"

Stephanie just sighed. "Can't we do something else, Pixel? You've been playing that thing for three hours now!"

"Not until I advance to the next level!" Pixel's eyes remained glued to the screen.

Stephanie turned to Ziggy, who was drowning out Pixel's constant whining by sticking gummy worms into his ears. When nudged, the boy looked up and removed a worm from one of his ears.

"What?" He asked.

"Why don't we just go on without Pixel?" Stephanie suggested.

Clyde, who had been staring out the window the whole time, chuckled to himself and turned his attention over to Pixel and his game.

"What are you playing?" He asked, going over the screen. "Oh, cool. _'Dominion 3000'_. Yeah, I always have trouble with the dungeon spiders myself."

Pixel gave the boy a surprised look. "You play the '_Dominion_' games?"

With a nod, Clyde took over the game control and stared at the television screen. "Of course I do. The games are usually a bit difficult and demanding at first but if you know what you're doing, you'll find out things are always easier than you thought."

After thumbing through the controls, Clyde managed to take Pixel's game sprite to the next level and returned the controller back to him with a grin. "You see? Not so hard, is it?"

"What the…" Pixel was stunned and amazed. "You managed to level him up 20 times than I expected and without spending my skill points!"

Stephanie leaned in closer to Trixie. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

She just shrugged. "They're boys. What did you expect? I gave up trying to understand them a long time ago."

"I don't know." Stephanie gazed at Clyde for a bit. "Sometimes they can be a bit intriguing. Like there's something about them you just can't place your finger on."

"Huh?"

Stephanie shook her head and shrugged off her thoughts. "Nothing. Never mind."

* * *

Inside his airship, Sportacus finished his patrol of the town and took a seat at the pilot controls. He activated a video screen and punched in a few keys, activating some sort of communication signal.

"_Connecting to satellites_." The computer voice said. "_Destination?_"

"Home." Sportacus answered, sitting back in his chair.

"_One moment, please_."

The video fizzed for a moment until a green line ran through the middle. Sportacus looked up at the ceiling and calmly waited for the connection process to finish and sighed heavily.

"Sportacus?" A female's voice startled the hero, causing him to fall back on his seat.

"Ma!" The hero in blue said as he sat back down. "It's me!"

The woman displayed on the video screen was young-looking, with a long, golden mane and wearing a gown of purest white. She was, despite her youthful appearance, Sportacus' mother Jezelle.

"I know my own son when I see him." The woman snapped. "And isn't it just like you to call your mother whenever it suits you!? Where have you been, huh? Why don't you ever call your dear mother like you should!?"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Sportacus tried to dodge his mother's temper. "Yes, ma! I… I understand! Could I… please, could I just… could I say something, please!?"

The woman rolled her eyes back. "Okay, what?"

"I have to know for sure if Clyde is completely well enough to travel on his own."

"Why, has something happened? Has he had another attack?" The woman leaned in towards her screen. "Has there been an incident you haven't told me about yet?"

"No, ma!" Sportacus sighed. "I just don't want him to get uncomfortable. You know what happens when he tenses up."

She nodded. "Yes. Losing his parents was hard enough for him. But to have this… this _illness_, follow him for the rest of his life… it's unimaginable the pain he must be going through. The loneliness."

"I know. I guess LazyTown _is_ the perfect place for him to relax. The kids are friendly, he seems to get along well and Stephanie's already transfixed on him. I can tell."

Jezel thought for a moment. "Stephanie? That pink cheerleader you always speak of?"

Sportacus nodded with a grin. "Yes."

"Rotten isn't going to be a problem, is he?"

Just then, Sportacus' eyes widened with fear. "Robbie! Oh no… I completely forgot about him! He's always coming up with some wild and wacky scheme to get rid of me!"

"Sportacus, you must speak with him! Knock some sense into him if you have to!"

"Wait, wait…" Sportacus finally calmed down. "I'm getting ahead of myself. Robbie isn't really evil. He's just… goofy. He doesn't really mean what he says most of the time. And even when he _does_ succeed, it usually backfires and Robbie always turns out to be the good guy in the end."

"But are you sure it won't affect Clyde in any way?" She warned him. "If the tension builds up, it could get out of control and consume him. His heart rate is already abnormal. We don't need it getting any worse than it already is."

Sportacus paused for a moment then looked at his mother. "It's okay. He'll be fine. I'll make sure of it. With Stephanie's help and the rest of the children, he should be fine. Besides, he's got his meds with him. That alone should be able to sustain him."

"I hope you're right, son." She smiled. "You just take care of him. He's the only nephew you've got."

Sportacus chuckled a bit. "He's so much like his father."

"That he is. But I can see more of his uncle in him than anything. Good night, son."

"Good night, mother."

* * *

Robbie gazed through his periscope and watched as the sun went down. The kids were now heading back home and today's daily activities were finally coming to an end.

"Oh, thank you!" Robbie clasped his hands together. "No more noise!"

With a sinister giggle, Robbie walked over to his machine and ran his hand along the smooth, leathery seats.

"Now all I have to do is bring them in one by one!" He said to himself. "But how to do it? Hmm…"

Robbie glanced across the room and rushed over to a box of inventions he hadn't used in a while. After sorting through the junk, he pulled out a small, metallic ray gun with a lightning bolt crossed out on the handle.

"My energy drainer!" Robbie grinned. "Of course! If I use this to drain out Sportadorka's energy, he'll be as helpless as a… a… oh, forget it! He'll just be helpless! Haha! Rotten, you're a genius!"

* * *

Outside, Clyde and Stephanie were walking home and talking to each other as the moon slowly started to ascend.

"I didn't know you knew so much about video games." Stephanie said, her hands together.

"Well, what did I tell ya? I'm a nerd!" He joked.

Stephanie couldn't help but giggle. "But you're a cool nerd."

"Isn't that an oxymoron?"

"Probably." She shrugged.

Once they reached Stephanie's home, the girl in pink slowly turned to Clyde and gave him a sincere look.

"Listen, Clyde." She started. "…Again, I'm really sorry about… you know. Bringing your illness up."

"It's no problem." He reassured her. "I'm just glad I have someone to talk to about it."

"And you always will."

Another awkward silence fell between the two until Stephanie broke the ice with a nervous titter.

"Well… I better go in. Your uncle will be back any minute." Stephanie started to turn away.

"Yeah." Clyde nodded. "I better… go back to the Track One."

"Good night, Clyde."

"Good night, Stephanie."


	5. Conflict

**Chapter 5**

Clyde tossed and turned in his bed, sweating immensely as the nightmare continued to torment his mind. The voices were calling him, scratching away from the inside as to break onto the surface. This caused the young boy to fall over and bump his head on the floor, awakening him. Although the nightmare was over and Clyde was now awake, he could still feel the pain throbbing in his chest. He hurried over to the wall panel and activated the medicine cabinet, where he began to rush through all the various tubes. After finding the right set of pills, he popped the cap open and downed a few of them with a glass of water.

Seconds later, the pain died out and Clyde looked at his sweaty reflection on the cabinet mirror. With a heavy sigh, Clyde sluggishly climbed back into bed and stared at the ceiling. The late night attacks were now taking its toll on the boy. He knew why he suffered from them but was unsure whether or not to cut off the source.

"Stephanie." He whispered to himself as he drifted back to sleep.

The next morning found Pixel, Trixie, Ziggy, Gloria and Ritchie playing kickball in the courtyard when an older, gruff looking kid with spiky black hair and a blue jean jacket came to ruin their day.

"Uh-oh." Pixel said as he caught the ball. "Nobody look but I think Terrance is back from summer school."

"Terrance!?" Ziggy started to shake. "Oh, I don't like this!"

Trixie shushed the boy. "Quiet, Ziggy! Just ignore him and he'll go away!"

"But he'll beat us up if we do!" Little Ritchie panicked.

"Nuh-uh!" Obnoxious little Gloria shook her head. "Maybe he'll beat _you_ up but not me! I'm a girl! Boys don't hit girls!"

"No, but we can shove 'em!" The menace known as Terrance chortled as he took the red ball from Gloria and pushed her in the dirt. "Hello, losers!"

"Give us our ball back, Terrance!" Trixie demanded.

Ziggy jumped in front of her. "She meant to say, 'can you please, please, _please_, give us our ball back?' Heh heh."

"What ball?" The spiky-haired punk teased.

"Uhh… Th-th-that one?"

"Oh this? Sure! Catch!" Terrance said as he hurled the ball at Ziggy, hitting him in the face.

Ritchie then started to jump up and down. "Oh no! He killed Ziggy!"

"Get the ball!" Pixel pleaded as he and the others hurried over to Ziggy to retrieve it.

Unfortunately for them, Terrance got to the ball first and popped it with his bare hands. He laughed unremorsefully and kicked dirt on Ziggy's face while Trixie balled up her fist and gave him a dirty look.

"You jerk, Terrance!" She snapped. "Look what you did! Now we can't play anymore!"

"Not with _this_ ball, anyway!" He chuckled.

* * *

"I always liked that kid!" Robbie exclaimed as he watched from his lair. He then gasped as he saw Stephanie approaching the group. "Oh, great. Here comes that pink cheerleader."

* * *

"Terrance…" Stephanie froze in place as the town bully turned his attention to her.

"How goes it, Stephanie?" He grinned. "You come to stand up for your little friends?"

"Can't you just leave them alone?"

"What and let you guys have fun playing soccer and stuff like that? Well, sure. I guess I could do that. But then where would I get_ my_ fun from, huh?"

"Ew, gross!" Ziggy spit the dirt from his mouth.

"Shut up!" Terrance pushed Ziggy back down and kicked more dirt on him. "And don't get up until I tell you to!"

"Yes, sir!" Ziggy bowed.

"Just leave, Terrance." Stephanie's voice started to rise. "I mean it."

"Oh, you mean it? What, is that like a threat or something? Are you gonna sic that blue sports elf on me? Should I be afraid?"

"Yeah!" Ritchie said. "…Wait a minute… no!"

Terrance stared at Ritchie for a few seconds before finally giving him a wedgie and kicking him on the butt. Being younger that the other kids, Ritchie couldn't help but burst into tears while Gloria joined in for no particular reason.

"Look what you did, Terrance!" Stephanie scolded. "Now they're crying!"

"Well, it's their fault for being so small and weak!" He snickered. "All right, I had enough fun for today. I'll catch you crybabies later."

As Terrance turned to walk away, he found himself bumping into a green shirted stranger with a very serious look on his face.

"Going somewhere?" Clyde gazed at the punk.

"Who are you?" The bully scoffed. "Their bodyguard?"

"You could say that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup. You see… _Terrance_, is it?" Clyde looked over to Stephanie, who nodded in response. "Unlike my uncle Sportacus, I have the ability to actually interfere with the affairs of LazyTown's youth. Why? Because I'm one of you. If uncle Sporty were to give you an atomic wedgie so tight, you'd have to breath through your ears, it would look bad on him. However, if I were to do it? Well, let's just say the adults would simply turn the other cheek and say the old 'boys will be boys' line and end the discussion then and there."

"You're joking, right?"

"A joke… is a story with a humorous climax. Were this situation to reach a climax, it wouldn't be so humorous. Get my drift?"

"You're bluffing." Terrance crossed his arms with a smug look on his face. "If you're anything like your uncle, you won't lay a finger on me."

"Try me." Clyde came face to face with the bully as Stephanie and the others watched in anticipation.

As the two locked eyes in a confrontational manner, Clyde began to feel himself shaking from within. If he didn't back down now, he could have another attack and do something he'd regret.

Unafraid, Terrance shoved Clyde aside and walked off. "Yeah, I knew it. You're full of it. Just like that crazy uncle of yours."

As Terrance left, the shaking within Clyde stopped. Luckily for the both of them, nothing happened but Clyde couldn't help but feel defeated. He grumbled under his breath and took a seat on one of the benches while the other children came to his side.

"Who is that kid?" Clyde asked.

"Terrance is the official town bully!" Ziggy growled. "The first time we met, he busted my lollipop over my head! It was funny the first 3 times but after that, it got old!"

"He's got the biggest book of pranks I've ever seen!" Trixie added. "And about 99 percent of them, he's already used on me!"

Pixel then joined in. "Yeah. He even crashed my hard drive more than once by sending me that virus hidden in that online game!"

"He gave me a wedgie 2 minutes ago!" Ritchie cried as Gloria helped him undo the damage.

"Something's gotta be done with that kid." Clyde looked down.

Stephanie simply put a hand on his shoulder. "Face it, Clyde. Kids like Terrance just can't be reasoned with. They can't be bought and they can't be pushed into fear. But thanks anyway."

"Yeah… you're welcome, I guess."

* * *

Robbie held his energy drainer in his hand as he climbed out of his lair. After descending from the ladder, Robbie started for the town and kept his ray gun hidden in his back pocket. When he reached near a telephone pole, where a flock of birds chirped happily, he decided it was time for a test run. 

"This looks like a good place to practice!" Robbie said as he aimed the gun at the power box. "Let's see you sing a song about _this_!"

The red beam that shot from the gun's nozzle missed the birds entirely as it hit the power boxes at the top of the pole instead. Robbie simply shook in place and could feel the vibrations flowing through the gun as it absorbed all the electricity.

In random parts of the town, small electric outages were caused by Robbie's invention. One of the places to experience technical difficulties was Lazy Hills Retirement Home, where Remus immediately suspected the culprit behind it.

"Robert." He grinned. "I knew I could count on you."

Stingy just shook his head as he handed Remus his medicine. "Honestly, that thing you're doing isn't fooling anybody."

"What are you talking about? You think I'm crazy? I'm not—These aren't my pills, Stymie!"

"Stingy."

"Whatever!" He splashed his cup of water over the boy's face. "Take them back! And bring me the right pills! Now, curse you! Now!"

"Okay, okay!" Stingy hurried out of the room. "Man, I can't wait until this sentence ends!"

Back near the telephone pole, Robbie switched off his device and marveled at its abilities. "Wow! I didn't know this baby could absorb _all _kinds of energy!"

He looked around to make sure Sportacus or anyone else didn't see what he did and carried on towards LazyTown. An evil grin then spread across his face.

"Here I come, Sportadoofus." He continued. "And when I'm through with you, you'll be the most hated non-relative ever!"

As Robbie continued walking, Remus lowered his binoculars and buried them deep into his robe. It seems, despite Robbie's wishes, someone actually did witness his little energy discovery. Now, Remus had a plan all his own to obtain Robbie's invention and use it for his own purposes.

"Why, Robert…" He grinned. "You shouldn't have."

Stingy then approached the old man with a new cup of pills. "Here you go."

"Why, thank you Spanky." He took the pills and noticed they were still wrong. "What!? These still aren't the right ones!"

"Oh, come on!" Stingy shrieked as he found himself under attack by a shower of pills and water.

"Get me my pills, boy! Now! Move it, move it, move it!" Remus whacked the boy with his cane.

"I'm going! I'm going!"

"Kids these days." Remus cursed under his breath. "No respect for their elders."


	6. Game On

**Chapter 6**

Robbie watched from behind the wall as Sportacus led the kids in their usual warm-up routine and held his energy drainer close by. He slowly raised his gun and aimed at Sportacus until little Ritchie got in the way.

"Whoa!" Robbie quickly lowered his contraption. "Don't want to make _that_ mistake again!"

"Look at me! Look at me!" Ritchie jumped up and down.

"Then again… No! I need to save it for Sportadork and Pinky Polly!"

"Yes, I see you Ritchie!" Sportacus chuckled as he tried to calm the overly hyper young boy.

"What should we do now, Sportacus?" Stephanie asked.

"How 'bout some baseball?"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered.

"No!" Robbie growled. "Stand still, you blue monkey!"

Furious, Robbie climbed over the wall and headed for the baseball field, making sure no one would spot him. He didn't want to get suckered into playing with them like he did last time. He was still sore from that experience.

"Lousy, no good Sportamonkey." Robbie grumbled as he hid behind another wall, close to third base. "Okay, now… concentrate, Rotten…"

"Okay, Stephanie!" Sportacus called out as he stood on the pitcher's mound. "You're up first!"

"All right!" Stephanie grabbed her pink bat and stood near the home plate. "C'mon! Throw me your best shot!"

"Strike her out, Sportacus!" Trixie teased.

"All these kids are in the way!" Robbie moved around the edge. "Hey, you! Little girl!"

"Huh?" Little Gloria turned around. "Oh, hi Robbie!"

"Yeah, yeah! How's it going, Debbie?"

"Gloria!"

"Whatever. Listen, could you just move? Y'know? Just a few feet away from where you're standing?"

"Okay!" The little girl complied. "My daddy says all good little girls should listen to what grownups tell them!"

"Oh, yeah? I hear the train coming! Why don't you go give it a hug?"

"My daddy also says all good little girls don't put up with your crap."

Robbie immediately shut up. "Hmm… wow."

Near the field, Stingy wheeled Remus in his chair to watch the game as it went underway. The constant whacking from the old man's cane was beginning to take its toll on the young boy.

"We're here, Mr. Tard." Stingy said through his teeth. "We've got your cap, your banner, your giant foam finger and hot dog. Anything else?"

"Yeah! I said I wanted relish!" He whacked his cane over the boy's head. "Get me my relish!"

"Yes, sir." Stingy stormed off.

"And make sure it's kosher!"

As soon as Stingy was clear out of sight, Remus dropped the charade and took out his binoculars. He searched the area for Robbie and managed to spot him behind the wall next to 3rd base.

"Rotten." He smirked. "I've got you now."

"Here it comes, Stephanie!" Sportacus pitched the ball.

"And away it… goes!" Stephanie hit the ball clear into the sky.

"Wow!" Ziggy looked up. "That was amazing!"

"Way to go, Steph!" Pixel cheered his friend on as she ran across all the bases.

"Uh-oh." Robbie looked up at the oncoming ball. "I'm gonna get hit, aren't I?"

_**BONK!**_

"…Yup." Robbie passed out onto the floor.

"I'll get it!" Little Gloria climbed over the wall to take the ball from next to Robbie's unconscious self. She bent over and patted him on the head. "Aww, poor Robbie."

Remus' face lit up. "Yes! Just my luck!"

Remus then popped a wheelie on his chair and hauled his wrinkly old behind over to the wall while no one was looking. Gloria tossed the ball over to Sportacus, who patted his pink friend on the back.

"Nice hitting, Stephanie!" He told her.

"Thanks!" She smiled. "Okay, Trixie! Your turn!"

"Yeah, okay." The prankster slowly went up to bat. "No promises now!"

"Hey, where's Clyde?" Sportacus noticed his nephew was missing. "Wasn't he with you a little while ago?"

"Yeah." Stephanie nodded. "But then he had a run-in with Terrance."

Sportacus' blue yes widened with concern. "Terrance? Oh, no… did anything happen? Did Clyde…"

"Did Clyde what?"

Sportacus shook his head and laughed it off. "No, nothing. Let's keep playing, huh?"

"Sportacus, is there something wrong?"

"No… I hope not."

Remus finally made it over to Robbie, who was still lying unconscious on the floor. He saw the ray gun still clasped firmly in his hand and decided to force it out.

"Give me… that… device!" Remus strained as he pulled on the handle.

"Huh? What?" Robbie started to come around. "Hey, wait a minute... Grandpa?"

"Sleep!"

_**WHACK!**_

Robbie passed out again, this time with a thin red mark overshadowing the large bump on his forehead. Remus wheeled away back into position as he tucked the ray gun into his pocket.

"It's mine! It's mine!" He said as Stingy returned with a bottle of relish.

"Hey, you sound kind of familiar." Stingy said as he handed the man his bottle of pickled slop. "Here's the relish you wanted. Extra kosher, I might add."

Remus took the bottle and locked eyes with the young boy for a few seconds before whacking him with the cane again for no apparent reason.

"Hey, what was that for!?"

"Hehehe… Home, boy! Home!"

"What!? But I thought you wanted to---" He noticed Remus raising his cane again. "Home, you say!? Sure, why not!?"

"Hi, Stingy!" Trixie waved as she watched him wheel Remus away.

"Can't talk! Crazy old man will hit me again!"

* * *

Inside his airship, The Track One, Clyde reached into the medicine cabinet and took out another bottle of pills as his hand shook uncontrollably. After popping the top open, Clyde stared down the orange tube and noticed all the red and white capsules just laying there. 

"No…" Clyde put the top back on.

In doing so, he started to shake even more but tried to force away the pain. He struggled to place the tube back in the cabinet but managed to do so anyway. When he retracted the wall, Clyde then fell to the floor and clasped his trembling hands to his chest in an attempt to expel his condition.

"I'm not… going to let you… control me…" Clyde strained through the pain. "I'm not…"

After a while, the shaking had stopped. Clyde was now breathing heavily and his face was drenched with sweat but at last the pain was gone. He then stood up and checked himself for anything unusual but realized he was now in control. He had beaten the illness… for now.

* * *

_**A/N: Next Week – The mystery surrounding our pal Clyde is FINALLY revealed. WARNING: It ain't gonna be pretty.**_


	7. Not So Secret Garden

_**A/N: Just so's ya know, I'll be changing some of the show's canon in this chapter. Nothing anyone else hasn't done, so it shouldn't be that big a deal. **_

**Chapter 7**

A week had passed since Robbie failed to drain Sportacus' energy with his new invention, which was now property of one Remus Tard. Mayor Meanswell had returned from his business trip, relieving Sportacus of his babysitting duties. This meant he could now focus on looking out for his nephew, who was starting to get adjusted to living in LazyTown. During that whole week, Clyde had ignored his meds but the pain didn't seem to escalate one bit. Sure, Terrance was on the move every few days but Clyde knew well enough to avoid him and prevent a confrontation.

Clyde, instead, spent his time with Stephanie and got to know her a little better while the other, younger, kids kept to themselves. Stephanie got to know more about Clyde as well but the mystery about his medical condition was still unsolved. However, Stephanie slowly learned to ignore it and just enjoy the time she was spending with her new friend.

One day, while the two were hanging around in the town garden, Milford sat in his office when Bessie barged in.

"Milford!" She started. "Your niece is missing! Witnesses say she ran off with a kid in a green shirt! I think she may have been kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped!?" Milford started to panic until he realized who she was talking about. "Wait a minute. Stephanie hasn't been kidnapped, Ms. Busybody!"

"She hasn't?"

"No. She's just went off to the garden with Clyde."

Bessie paused for a moment. "Clyde? Who's Clyde?"

"Sportacus' nephew. I met him already. He's a charming young lad. He takes after his uncle, you know. So very fit and agile."

"Oh, _that_ Clyde." She remembered. "Yes, he's a good boy."

There was another pause while Bessie awkwardly looked around the room as Milford signed papers, humming to himself. After a while, he noticed Bessie just standing there and got her attention.

"Yes, Ms. Busybody? Is there anything else?"

"Hmm? Oh, no! No, no, no!" She giggled nervously. "Of course not… it's just, uhh… well, I don't know if you've noticed but…""Yes, what is it?"

Bessie took a deep breath and went for it. "…But I happen to think Stephanie has been spending a lot of time with that boy ever since he arrived."

"Well, she always spends time with her friends."

Bessie nodded then shook her head. "No, yes—well, that's not it exactly! You see, lately she's been hanging around with him and only him…"

Milford then started to get the picture. "Oh… well yes… _now_ I see… Well, what can I say?"

"Aren't you in the least bit concerned?"

"Oh, not at all. They're both at that age now, you know. It's only natural. And besides, if he's anything at all like his uncle, we'll know Stephanie is in good hands."

* * *

"So there _is_ more to you than just playing, singing and dancing." Clyde said as he sprinkled some seeds on a bed of soil. "Any particular reason you like coming here? I mean _besides_ providing my uncle with his precious energy?"

Stephanie shrugged with a smile as she watered the vegetables. "I don't know. I sometimes come here to relax. It really helps me take my mind off things."

"What things?"

She just shrugged. "Well… whenever my friends and I have a fight, for instance. I come here to cool off and just wait it out until we're all ready to apologize."

"Wow. Judging by the vastness of this place, I'd say you guys fight an awful lot." Clyde said with a smirk.

"Oh, don't make me fight _you_ now!" Stephanie playfully chucked a clump of dirt towards the boy. "You do that, then I won't have _any_ place to relax!"

"Sorry." Clyde chuckled as he and Stephanie walked over to trim the flowers.

"I guess you think I'm probably weird for doing this." Stephanie said as she kept her attention focused on the flowers. "Normally, the others would help me maintain the garden but somehow I feel more connected to it than them."

"I don't think you're weird." Clyde said after a brief pause. "Weird is having to spend your life hiding from an illness that no one understands. Not even yourself. I suppose if anyone's weird around here, it's me."

Another pause fell between the two until Stephanie placed her hand on the boy's shoulder and looked straight into his emerald green eyes.

"You look perfectly normal to me, Clyde." She smiled at him.

"Thanks. But there's something about _you_ I just can't place…" He started to tease her again."

"Oh, what _now_!?" The pink one rolled her eyes with a giggle.

"I don't know. Something seems a little… _off_." He looked around the bushel of flowers then realized what was missing. "Oh, I know!"

"What are you doing?" She asked Clyde as he carefully trimmed a white oleander.

"Here, just stand still…" Clyde instructed as he reached over and moved Stephanie's bright pink hair to the side and placed the flower on the appropriate spot. "There. That's better."

"Huh?" Stephanie was obviously confused.

"Oh, nothing." He said shyly. "I just figured a pretty girl like you shouldn't be without a flower in her hair."

_**(A/N: I hope you know I'm gagging from all of this...**_

"Clyde…" An awkward giggle came from Stephanie as she tried to hide her face, which was now turning red.

"It sounds corny, I know." He shrugged. "Sorry. You don't have to wear it."

"No, I want to."

* * *

From behind a wall, Ziggy, Trixie, Pixel and Stingy were spying on the two out of sheer boredom. Using a pair of Pixel's high-tech binoculars, Trixie could see the two awkwardly staring at each other and laughing like two shy birdies circling one another.

"What are they doing?" Ziggy asked, holding his lollipop tightly.

"They're just talking…" She observed. "…And laughing… okay, now they're just staring at each other… uh-huh… For some reason Stephanie has a flower in her hair and her face is unusually red."

"Is she mad?"

"No, she's smiling. Pay attention, Ziggy!"

"Yeah, Ziggy!" Stingy nodded. "Pay attention."

Ziggy just gave Stingy a dirty look. "Shouldn't you be sponging off some old guy right now?"

"Hey, that sentence was only for two days! My sponging days are _over_, buddy!" He then pointed to Trixie. "And don't think for one minute that you're gonna make me fall for another one of your stupid pranks, missy!"

"We'll see…" She let off a wicked laugh while keeping her eyes on her friends. "…Okay, now I think they're just talking again."

"What about?" Pixel asked. "Can you make out what they're saying?"

"No…"

* * *

"So it's just you and your uncle, huh?" Clyde suddenly changed the subject.

"Yeah." Stephanie nodded. "My parents died when I was too young to remember. I've lived with my uncle ever since. Only, I haven't been living in LazyTown for that long."

"You haven't?"

"No. When I was younger, I stayed at a boarding school out of my own interests until I was ready to come home. The only problem? I didn't know where home was. Until I came here."

"You didn't like it over there?"

"I liked it just fine. But… I don't know. I just didn't fit in. I mean, you try being the only kid in your class who didn't know their parents. The kids would tease me and call me names but I didn't let them get to me. I was happy when I came here."

"Do you miss them? Your parents, I mean."

"Not really. I mean, it's kind of hard to miss somebody you've never met before. I guess that sounds pretty cruel."

Clyde shook his head. "No, I think it makes sense. The same logic could be applied to a mother who's just given birth to her first child. I mean, how can you fall in love with someone…"

"…You just met." Stephanie finished the sentence as she and Clyde's eyes remained fixed on each other's.

And, would you believe it, another pause came between them as they slowly moved in closer to each other. Then a little bit closer. Then closer. Closer some more. But before they could… well, you know… someone was heard screaming from the distance.

"What was that?" Stephanie looked back.

"I don't know." Clyde snapped out of his trance. "I'd better go check it out."


	8. To The Moon, Alice!

_**WARNING: This chapter is about to get really silly. I mean, like, wow…. Well, maybe not. You be the judge. **_

**Chapter 8**

"Let us go, Terrance!" Ziggy cried as he found himself pinned to a tree by his underwear. "This isn't funny!"

"Sure it is!" The bully laughed as he kicked Pixel around, who was tied from limb to limb.

"You call this a prank!?" Trixie griped as she and Stingy hung upside down from the treehouse, stuck together with duct tape. "I've seen kindergarteners come up with better gags than this!" 

"Really? Well I don't care!" Terrance taped the girl's mouth shut.

"What's the point of all this!?" Pixel rocked back and forth. "What, are you gonna dump us on the railroad tracks and hope someone runs us over?"

"Hey! Shut up, Pixel!" He kicked the boy. "You think you're so smart, don't you? Well you're not!"

Terrance then took Ziggy's lollipop and busted it over his head, littering the floor with shards of white and red stripes. With a satisfied chuckle, the boy turned to leave.

"Where's Sportacus!?" Ziggy started to sob. "He's supposed to come get us!"

"Oh, don't worry! He'll be here! Why don't you just hang around and wait!" Terrance started to laugh some more as he bumped into a familiar looking boy in a green shirt.

"Hi there." Clyde grinned. "You want to explain to me why my friends are in such… _strange _positions?"

Terrance just scoffed. "Oh, it's only you. I thought it was somebody important."

"Who says I'm not?"

Stephanie soon approached the group and groaned when she saw Clyde face to face with Terrance. "Oh, no." She then noticed her friends all tied up. "Clyde, forget about it. Let's just set them loose and pretend this never happened."

"No way, Steph." Clyde shook his head. "Somebody needs to teach this kid a lesson."

"It isn't worth it, Clyde."

Terrance immediately took advantage of Clyde and shoved him. "Go on then, Clyde. Teach me a lesson. Huh? Come on, Clyde. You're so tough, then teach me a lesson."

"Clyde…" Stephanie pleaded as she took him by the arm. "Let's just untie them and ignore Terrance. He's just a punk kid who wants some attention."

"You stay out of this, Pinky!"

What happened next could only be described as a serious error in judgment. With all his might, Terrance pushed Stephanie away and caused her to trip over Pixel and knock into the nearby wall. When Clyde saw Stephanie's motionless body on the grass, all of his emotions began to catch up with him and reignite the fire that was inside. Terrance only snickered at Stephanie and her friends as Clyde stood firmly on the ground, his left hand balled up in a shaking fist.

"Aw, what's the matter?" The bully teased. "Did I hurt your little girlfriend?"

"No…" Clyde winced as he fell to his knees, clutching his chest as the pain kicked into him. "I can't… I can't… please, don't…"

"Geez, what a wimp. And I didn't even do anything to you."

Clyde took deep breaths to try and ease the pain as he slowly got back on his feet. However, the sight of Stephanie injured on the floor proved to be too much and thus allowed an explosion of rage to commence in the most unlikely way.

Clyde started to huff and puff around the bully, eventually putting his fists up and challenging him forth with a few nasally growls.

"What's he doing?" Stingy asked as remained hanging upside down.

"Put 'em up! Put 'em up!" Clyde circled around Terrance, speaking like a certain cowardly lion from a certain memorable film. "I'll fight ya with one paw tied behind my back! I'll fight ya standing on one foot! I'll fight ya with my eyes closed! I'll get you anyway, pee-wee! Rawr!"

"Clyde, what are you doing!?" Ziggy panicked.

"What's your problem?" Terrance asked as he started to walk off again.

Unfortunately for him, however, Clyde stopped the boy in his tracks and showed him his fist again. This time, he did what appeared to be his best Ralph Kramden impression.

"To the moon, Alice!" He swung at the boy, just missing his head by a few inches.

"Whoa!" Terrance ducked and backed away slowly. "Dude, seriously! You're not supposed to hit me! I thought you hero types were against that sort of thing!"

Obviously Terrance was wrong as he soon found himself tackled to the floor and his whole body pinned down just by the weight of Clyde's foot.

"I claim this land in the name of our lord Boom Shaka Laka!" Clyde let out an irritatingly high-pitched call, wriggling his tongue out like a maniac.

He then took out a rubber band from his pocket and stretched it out from between his fingers and aimed it straight at his enemy's face.

"What the…" The boy started to panic.

"I know what you're thinking." Clyde suddenly turned into Clint Eastwood. "Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya… _punk_?"

"Look, I'm sorry! Okay!? I'm sorry!" Terrance sobbed as he knew he was in trouble now.

With a giggle, Sportacus' mysterious nephew shot the rubber band directly at Terrance's forehead, causing him to whine like a baby. But Clyde wasn't finished with the boy just yet. He picked Terrance up by the shirt and came face to face with him once more, while Ziggy and the other kids just watched in confusion.

"Does anyone have any idea what's going on?" Stingy asked, who remained upside down stuck to Trixie. "Seriously, I can't make head or tail of it all!"

"Just leave me alone, man! I'll let your friends down, I swear!" The bully started to plead.

"What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully?" Clyde altered his voice a la Marlon Brando. "If you'd come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become _my_ enemies. And then they would fear you."

"What are you talking about!?!?!?"

Annoyed, Clyde turned Terrance around, pulled his drawers over his head and caught him by the nose then sent him on his way with a kick to the rear.

"I'm sorry but we're all out of time! Come back next week and try your luck again! Thanks for playing!" Clyde said in a nasally game show host style. Then, he switched into another characterization. "All my life I had to fight… I loves Harpo, God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead 'fo I let him beat me."

"Clyde?" Ziggy couldn't believe his eyes or ears.

"Ow!" The boy in green spun around once then shot his arms outward Jackson style. "Who's bad!?"

Clyde immediately went to work on freeing his friends, all the while switching back and forth between various television, movie and cartoon characters much to their bewilderment.

"Y'argh! You call this a knot!?" Clyde growled like a crusty old pirate. "I've seen underwear tighter than this!"

"Uhh… thanks, Clyde." Stingy rubbed his arms. "Are you okay?"

"Sure. Why do you ask?" Clyde suddenly returned to normal.

"What was all that just now?" Trixie asked as she ripped the tape from her mouth. "One minute you were the Cowardly Lion, the next you were… uhh…"

"Jackie Gleason." Pixel finished the sentence. "Look, Clyde, whatever you did it worked! Thanks!" 

The green-eyed boy then did his best John Wayne. "No problem. A man oughtta do what he thinks is right, ya know."

"Oh, he's doing it again!" Trixie rolled her eyes back. "It's okay, Clyde! You can stop playing now! Terrance is gone! We should really get Stephanie and…"

"Stephanie!" Clyde gasped, instantly turning back to his old self.

He picked the girl up and rushed her home with Ziggy and the others close behind. Clyde entered Stephanie's room and gently placed her on her bed while sending Ziggy and Pixel to fetch the mayor.

"Is she okay?" Trixie asked, concerned for her friend.

"She should be fine." Clyde examined the small cut on her head. "Go get me a damp towel, will you?"

"Okay!"

Stingy started to pace back and forth in a panic. "What do we do!? What do we do!? Stephanie's life is on the line, here!"

"It's just a bump and a cut, Stingy." Clyde stopped him in his tracks. "It's nothing too serious."

Just then, Milford entered the room with Sportacus right behind him. This caused Clyde to get up and have a panic attack of his own.

"Mr. Mayor! Uncle Sporty!" He shrieked. "Uhh… I can explain!"

"Oh, dear. Stephanie!" Milford went to his niece's bedside as Trixie reentered the room with the towel. "Hand me that towel, Trixie."

"What happened, Clyde?" Sportacus gave his nephew a solemn stare.

"It was Terrance!" Ziggy stuck up for his friend before going into another sugar rush. "He did this! He tied us all up and pestered us like always then Clyde and Stephanie came to help us then Clyde said something that made Terrance get mad then Terrance pushed Stephanie and Stephanie knocked into the wall then Clyde turned into the--"

"Okay, Ziggy! That's enough!" Clyde placed his hand over the little boy's mouth. "I think they got the idea now!"

"Should we call the doctor?" The hero in blue asked.

"I'll have him stop by as soon as possible." The mayor nodded. "I know this wasn't your fault, Clyde. Thank you for bringing her home."

"No problem." He smiled. "So what now?" 

"I suggest we let her rest and wait until she comes around. Then we can call the doctor to check on her."

With that said, everyone started to leave the room except Clyde. He just stood there with his eyes on Stephanie, feeling guilty for what had happened to her. Milford put his hand on the boy's shoulder and reassured him she would be fine.

"Come now…" He led him out the door. "You don't have anything to worry about."

"No… but _she_ might."

_**A/N: Confused? Puzzled? Anxious for more? No? All right, I'm sure by now you guys know what Clyde is suffering from. It doesn't get any more obvious than that.**_


	9. Despair & Relief

**Chapter 9**

"Vell, she is goingk to be just fine, _Herr_ Meanswell." Doctor Burkhard reassured Milford in his thick German accent. "Though perhaps a cat scan is in order, _ja_?"

"Oh my." Milford gasped. "Do you think it's serious?"

"It could be. You can never be too sure of zese zings, you know. Perhaps you should let me take her to ze hospital for further examination."

"It's just a bump on the head." Trixie shot the doctor's suggestion down.

"_Ja_ but a nasty one! All bloody-like _und_ schtuff!"

"Blood!?" Ziggy suddenly fainted.

Stingy and Pixel helped pick the boy up and led him out of the room as Trixie stared at the doctor rather suspiciously.

"Are you sure you're a real doctor and not a fake one?" She eyeballed the man.

"_Nein_! It is a lie! Who told you!?" The doctor suddenly snapped.

"Dr. Burkhard?" Milford gazed at the man confusingly. "Are you okay?"

The doctor realized the girl was joking and tried to play it off with a chuckle. "Oh… _ja_! I am fine! Haha! I make joke! Now I am to be goingk!"

"Oh dear." The mayor said. "What a strange man."

Outside the house, Robbie pulled off his fake disguise and breathed heavily. "Oh, that was the perfect opportunity to snatch the kid and haul her away! Stupid, nosy, pig-tailed little girl!"

Robbie walked through the town and turned to an alleyway, where a dumpster was shaking back and forth. The resident villain then opened the hatch and revealed the real town doctor tied up inside with his beard shaven off.

"Here ya go, Emil!" Robbie tossed the beard into the man's lap. "Thanks!"

"But vhat about _mein_ clothes?" The man asked. "You are still vearingk zem."

"Oh, yeah! Nice duds!"

Robbie slammed the top of the dumpster and started to walk off when he suddenly paused, turned around and went back for the good doctor.

"Oh, by the way… What time is my checkup next week?"

"Noon! And do not be late because I vill not--"

"Yeah, whatever." Robbie finally slammed the top and walked away for good. "Well then! I guess I'll have to come up with another plan!"

* * *

In his room, Remus passionately ran his pencil along the enlarged drawing pad on his lap and muttered to himself inconsistently. After finishing his latest drawing, the old man looked the page over and was immediately displeased with it. He tore the piece of paper from the pad and crumpled it up frustratingly. 

"It'll never work!" He grumbled to himself. "I need metal! I don't have enough in this place! If only there was some way to…"

He then remembered Robbie's blueprints tucked beneath his bed. The old man wheeled himself over and opened the sketchbook, hastily flipping through the pages.

"It's in here…" He said under his breath. "…I know it is. Where is it?"

Finally, old man Tard managed to find the exact blueprint he was looking for. He unfolded the pages and read aloud the details of what was called the Ultra Hypno-Ray.

"Robert must have already built this contraption." He concluded. "I need to get it. Then and only then will my device come to fruition. No… I still need my medallion. And there's only one person who has it."

* * *

The golden medallion remained tucked inside Stephanie's dresser since her epic battle against the former superhero known as Number 9. It was useless and void of any magic ability. But for some reason, Remus needed it for his triumphant return to power. Stephanie, of course, was oblivious to all this as she slowly opened her eyes and noticed the moon shining through her window. 

"What?" She looked around groggily. "Clyde?"

Stephanie placed her hand on her head and noticed the small bandage that had been placed there. After a few moments, she remembered Clyde's tense encounter with Terrance but couldn't recall what had happened afterwards.

"Clyde and… Terrance. Fighting? No…"

She then realized she was in her own room and that Clyde was probably up in his airship by now. She also thought that because of Terrance's arrival, Clyde was unable to stop him again and was now sulking about in the Track One. With an inexplicable need to see the young boy, Stephanie slowly got out of bed and quietly walked out the front door when her uncle stopped her in her tracks.

"Stephanie?" He said. "Are you okay? Are you feeling better? How's your head?

"It still hurts a little." She responded. "But it's not too bad."

"Oh good."

"What happened, Uncle?"

"Oh, dear. I'm afraid Terrance was up to no good again. The children told me Terrance pushed you over and knocked you into the wall. And that Clyde came and put him in his place. Afterwards, Clyde came rushing over here, carrying you in his arms."

"Really?" Her face lit up for some reason.

The mayor nodded. "Yes. He never took his eyes off you for a second. In fact, I'd even say he was more concerned for your wellbeing than the rest of us. But of course, we were _all_ concerned about you."

"Wow." The pink-haired girl was at a loss for words.

"Now where are you sneaking off to?"

"I think I'll just go see Clyde and let him know I'm fine."

The two airships were in plain view in the middle of the night sky as Stephanie walked along the front yard, her eyes fixed skyward. 

"I hope he's okay." Stephanie said to herself as she headed for the mailbox.

* * *

Inside the Track One, Clyde sat on the corner of his bed with his head down and hands running through his dark brown hair. His guilty conscience was gnawing away at him but the fact that his medical secret was now revealed troubled him even more. He decided to call it night when suddenly his mail tube shot out a canister with a pink slip of paper inside. Clyde hurried over to the machine and took out the piece of paper, smiling when he read the simple message: 

_**I'm okay now.**_

_**-Steph**_

Moments later, Clyde hurried down the ladder from his airship and was immediately wrapped in a tight embrace from Stephanie. He closed his eyes for a minute, basking in the presence of her warmth and was further relieved from the fact that she was all right.

_**A/N: Ugh…**_

"I'm sorry." He said to her. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just wanted to stop Terrance before he could---"

The boy was suddenly interrupted when he felt Stephanie's warm lips press against the side of his cheek. She smiled at him and playfully rumpled his hair while letting off that squeaky giggle of hers.

"I know it wasn't your fault, Clyde." She reassured him.

"I _am_ sorry, though. And I _am_ glad to see you're okay now."

"Thanks." She then turned to leave. "Good night, Clyde."

"Good night, Stephanie."

_**A/N: Kill me. Kill me now.**_

From inside his own airship, Sportacus watched as the sixteen and seventeen year olds parted ways and smiled. At last, he thought to himself, his nephew had found a place to fit in.

"Those two are gonna go crazy without each other." He grinned before turning in for the night.


	10. Geezer On The Loose!

**Chapter 10**

The next morning, Clyde got together with Stingy, Trixie, Pixel and Ziggy and huddled beneath the treehouse. Because of his recent outbreak, he decided it was time to let them in on his secret.

"Look, guys…" He started with a hesitant sigh. "…About yesterday, I'm sorry if I seemed a little…uhh…"

"Crazy?" Stingy suggested. "Weird? Off the wall?"

"Yeah, okay. But there's a reason why I did what I did and how I did it." He hesitated again. "Uhh… I'm not exactly sure how I can tell you this but…"

"Well just try." Ziggy encouraged. "We'll understand."

"Okay. You see, I have what is called a multiple personality disorder. Or MPD."

Everyone exchanged glances, unsure as to what Clyde had just said. After a few empty blanks, Sportacus' nephew continued.

"It's like this… Uhh… sometimes my mind kind of wanders off and I'm suddenly going into another frame of mind. One that isn't my own. I become… someone else. Someone who doesn't exist or someone who _does_ exist but only in a fictitious atmosphere… You guys… know what I'm saying?"

More blank exchanges passed between the kids until Ziggy, daring to get a better understanding, tried to piece together puzzle.

"So…" He started. "…The people you imitate only come out when your mind shuts down?"

"Yeah. Sort of. It doesn't shut down exactly but it kind of wanders off and my head starts to get filled with all sorts of… weird stuff. And then I start doing things that I normally wouldn't do. Like hurting and humiliating Terrance."

"But why does it happen?"

"I don't know." Clyde shrugged. "I guess maybe because of the tension I get when I'm conflicted against someone like Terrance or when I'm trying to bottle up my emotions from someone and trying not to…"

Clyde immediately changed the subject and looked back up at his friends. "It's just an emotional thing, that's all."

"Oh." They all nodded.

"Look, promise me you won't say anything to Stephanie."

"What? Why not?" Trixie asked. "It's not like she'd make fun of you or anything."

"Yeah, I know but… I just don't think she'd understand."

"Sure she would! Stephanie's the most caring and understanding person we know!"

"I believe you. It's just… I don't want to her to freak out or anything."

Suddenly, Trixie's eyes widened with a revelation that she should have seen coming right from the start. "Oh, I get it! You like her!"

"Of course I do." He said casually. "She's a good friend."

"Right. _Friend_." The pigtailed girl snickered. "That's what they all say at first!"

Stingy just looked confused. "Huh? What are you going on about?"

"Nothing, Stingy. Lie down before you hurt yourself."

Clyde then realized what Trixie was implying. "Whoa! Hey! No, no, no! I didn't mean it like that! Nuh-uh! No way, man! I mean, yeah, she's cool and everything but, uhh… I don't really see myself… with someone like her… know what I'm saying?"

"Sure I do." Trixie kept that smug look of hers.

"Just don't tell her, all right? Please?"

"Oh, all right!" Trixie rolled her eyes. "But don't go acting up again like you did yesterday or else you'll give yourself away"!

"I've got that under control. I'm back on my meds again."

* * *

At Lazy Hills Retirement Home, a group of seniors sat around in a group while they presented their hand-crafted pieces of art.

"Okay, now who wants to go first?" Said the friendly nurse. "Mr. Johansen? How about you?"

The old man stammered a bit before getting up from his seat. "Uhh… okay. Ahem. I have a horsie. Neigh…"

What followed was an octogenarian slowly moving his handmade wooden horse about in midair while pathetically neighing like a horse.

"Wuss!" Remus cried out, laughing to himself.

"Mr. Tard?" The nurse shot a glance. "Would you like to go next?"

Remus looked down and kept his hands tucked under his blanket. "Uhh, no. Not yet."

"Very well. Miss Clara? Do you have anything?"

The old woman adjusted her glasses and took out a hand-woven quilt with a picture of Ike Eisenhower on it surrounded by hearts, flowers and risqué limericks.

"My sugar-daddy!" The old lady proudly declared whilst licking her lips. "Ooh, the things I would do to him! Mm-mm, good!"

The nurse just smiled uneasily. "That's nice. Oh, boy… Miss Pewter? How about you?"

As the group went around showing off their creations, Remus hastily worked on his project by cover of his blanket. The old man turned a few knobs and screwed in a few compartments all while looking up occasionally to make sure he wouldn't be caught.

"Okay, now." The nurse continued. "Mr. Lyle. What did you make?"

"I made brownies!" Giggled a cheeky old man.

"Oh, how very thoughtful! Do they have nuts?"

"Uh, hang on. Let me check…" The old man said as he reached for his bedpan.

"NO!" The nurse interrupted. "No, no! That's okay. Now then, Mr. Tard. What do you have for us?"

Remus added a few touches on his invention then finally revealed it from beneath the covers. He held up a small metallic cube with a set of buttons on one side and grinned at everyone.

"What is it?" Asked the nurse.

"It's my new invention! Mind you, it isn't finished yet but once I get the pieces I need, it'll be a real work of art! It's a portable energy containment unit complete with an ultraviolet emitter used to disorient superfluous and unwanted pursuers in the hopes of evading indictment."

Of course, this led everyone to stare at the old man until he could clear the air with this valid explanation:

"It's a distraction!"

At that moment, several slots opened on the faces of the cube, shooting out intense beams of light that blinded everyone. Remus slipped on a pair of sunglasses and wheeled his way out of the building, taking advantage of everyone's current disorientation.

"Later, suckers!" He laughed. "And now… to Rotten's!"

* * *

Inside his airship, Sportacus immediately responded to his blaring crystal and headed for the controls. In no time at all, the hero in blue responded to the frantic retirement home and noticed the bright lights peering through the windows.

"What's going on?" He asked to no one in particular as he headed for the door, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.

"Sportacus? Is that you?" The head nurse asked as she maneuvered her way past a group of herding orderlies.

The hero responded. "Yes. What's happening? Where are you? I can't see you?"

"It's Remus! He got away! He unleashed this light as a distraction and now the whole place is in a frenzy just trying to calm down our more sensitive patients!"

"Right. I'm going in!" Sportacus said as he slipped on a pair of dark lens goggles.

He flipped his way through the hallways and dodged another group of occupied orderlies and burst inside the recreation room. There, the light had grown even stronger and more intense as Sportacus could feel a strange energy tickle his skin.

"What is that?" Sportacus noticed the cube on the floor. "That must be it."

Sportacus wasted no time and leaned over to pick up Remus' invention. Once it was in his hand, the above-average hero searched for a way to turn off the light until he noticed a green crackle of energy start to crawl around the cube's surface.

"Uh-oh." He gasped. "This can't be good."

More and more sparks shot out from the cube until finally, the lights drew to a close. Sportacus lifted his goggles and looked at the cube some more when suddenly, the cube disappeared in one last spark of energy.

"It's gone." Sportacus looked around the room as the nurse and her orderlies approached the door. "The cube and Remus. They're both gone."

"What does this mean?" The nurse asked.

All Sportacus could do was shrug. "I wish I knew."

* * *

Robbie paced around his lair, trying to think of a way to snatch Sportacus and Stephanie. His plan to break them away from Clyde was going nowhere and the resident villain was already losing his patience.

"Think, Rotten! Think!" He scolded himself. "I can do this! I know I can! Somehow, some way, those two need to come into my reach so I can put them in my machine and---"

_**CLUNK!**_

"Huh!? Who's there!?" Robbie looked around but saw nothing. "Hmm. Must be my imagination."

The villain paced around some more, tapping his head and muttering to himself while a shadowy figure crept behind one of the lair's furnaces.

"There's got to be an easy way to bring them here." He continued. "I know there is. Maybe I'm overlooking something. Maybe my plans are too complicated when all I need is something simple. Like, trapping them in a net or… or making some kind of sleeping pill or---"

"Or maybe conking one of them on the head."

"Exactly! …Wait, what!?"

_**CONK!**_

An unconscious Robbie fell to the floor as Remus sat in his wheelchair, wielding a ridiculously large mallet in his hands. Pleased with himself, the old man dropped the mallet and held out his hand as his cube suddenly rematerialized.

"Okay, Robbie." He grinned. "You go ahead and rest. I'll take it from here."


	11. Wicked Reunion

**Chapter 11**

"Huh? Where am I? What happened?" Robbie looked around in a daze as he regained consciousness.

Remus wheeled up to the villain and gave him a taunting stare. "What happened is that I knocked you out and took some of your things."

"Things? What things?"

"Oh, just some stuff I found in your closet. I took them apart and used the pieces I needed to make my latest creation."

The old man pulled out a long, slender device from behind his seat and showed it to Robbie. He eyeballed the unique handling system and the blinking lights than ran along the device's metal casing and gave Remus a perturbed stare.

"W-what are you g-gonna do w-with it?" Stuttered Robbie.

With a wink, Remus turned himself around and rolled along the lair. "Well I'm not going to harm you, if that's what you were thinking."

"I wasn't!" Robbie lied through his teeth as he sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"I have no time for foolish ideals such as revenge. I must act now if I am to regain my power and restore order in this town once again."

Robbie was now confused. "Say what?"

"I can feel it in the air, Robert. The magic aura from my amulet is still lurking around LazyTown. When the gem was destroyed, it released all the raw energy and blended it with the surroundings. It's calling out to me and I intend on taking it back."

"How?" Robbie scratched his head. "You don't have the gem anymore."

"I realize that." Remus nodded. "But with this device, my energy cube and your energy drainer, I can regain my magic abilities and pick up where I left off! Of course, to do that… I will still need my medallion."

"Oh no." Robbie rolled his eyes. "Forget it! You're not getting me to do anything! Besides, I've got plans of my own!"

"I've already seen your machine, Rotten." Remus grinned. "The two chairs, the two monitors and those silly-looking cerebral links. Honestly, what were you thinking of doing? Getting your hair done while watching reruns of Dallas?"

"Not exactly…" Robbie growled under his breath. "My scheme is more _mental_ than it is physical."

Remus just scoffed. "Oh, yes? Then why don't you enlighten me?"

"Fine. I was going to use this machine to place Sportaschmuck and Pinky LePew in a false reality using those mind-link consoles."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "The purpose being?"

"The purpose being!? I wanted to toy with their heads, man! I overheard the kids talking and I thought to myself, 'wow! Why didn't _I_ think of that!?' If I could make them believe they were actually brother and sister, it would rock their entire world! They'd go crazy! They'd start to question their sanity or better yet—their very existence! And with this stunning revelation, they might even alienate themselves away from that pesky kid in all the green! Hahaha! What'd you think?" Robbie smirked.

The old man simply stood there, taken aback. "Wow… in all my life, I've never heard such a wonderfully mind-boggling PIECE! OF! CRAP!"

Robbie's face immediately fell. "Huh?"

_**WHACK!**_

"Ow! You know, that is _really_ annoying!"

"Honestly, Robert." Remus shook his head as he placed his cane back behind the chair. "Must you do everything the hard way? You don't need such a ridiculously large piece of machinery to tear them apart. If you really want to get to them, aim for the heart! Not the mind!"

"Well, how do I do that!?"

"You have the perfect device! I suggest using it!"

At that moment, Remus pulled out Robbie's Hypno-Ray and presented it to him. Robbie gasped and attempted to swipe it away but the old man was too fast.

"Nuh-uh!" Remus snickered. "I use it first. Once I'm done, you may have it back to play with whoever, _however_ you want."

Robbie then grew suspicious. "Just what are you planning exactly, old man?"

* * *

In the courtyard, Trixie and Stephanie sat around on the bench listening to music as the Track One hovered above them. The whole time, Trixie kept looking up then over to Stephanie, then up again and so on, giggling to herself because of Clyde's little predicament.

"What's so funny?" The pink-haired girl asked.

"Oh, nothing." Trixie kept her smug grin. "How's your head?"

"It's fine." She placed her hand on the small white patch. "Just another day until I can take it off."

Trixie then decided to have a little fun with Stephanie and looked back up in the sky, keeping in mind what she had promised Clyde.

"So have you spoken to Clyde? He was real worried about you." Trixie asked casually, trying to drop a hint.

Stephanie just nodded. "Yeah, I did."

Trixie snapped her fingers and mouthed the words, "Darn it." She then thought of something else to say. "Hey, what do you think of Clyde? Cute, isn't he?"

Stephanie immediately froze in place, trying to decide how to answer that question. Slowly, she turned her head over to Trixie and smiled nervously.

"C-Clyde, uh… w-well, I don't… don't…" She stammered. "I don't know. Guess I really haven't noticed."

Trixie didn't buy it, of course. "But didn't you blurt out, when you first met him, that he was--"

"No."

"…Okay. Whatever."

"What does it matter, anyway?"

Trixie simply shrugged. "I don't know. I just figured you kind of liked him or something."

"What? No! I mean, yeah but… not like _that_. You know? I mean there's no way I could ever—why, did he say anything?"

"Not that I know of." Trixie held back her laughter.

* * *

Elsewhere, Stingy was driving around in his little Hornet when Robbie suddenly revealed himself from behind a wall.

"Hey, Stinky!" The villain laughed. "How's it going?"

"It's Stingy!" The Joel Hodgson look-alike growled. "Now get out of my way! I'm driving here!"

"Sure, sure, no problem. It's just that, uhh… I kind of need a favor from you."

"A favor? From me? What is it?"

"You know that pink-haired friend of yours?"

"You mean Stephanie?"

"Yeah, that's the one. I need you to get something from her. It's round, it's flat and it's gold."

The little brat's face suddenly lit up. "G-gold? Really?"

Robbie simply nodded. "Mm-hmm… I want you to ask her for it and then bring it back to me."

Stingy then became suspicious. "Wait a minute. This thing wouldn't happen to be a medallion, would it?"

"Yes, it would."

"What!? No way, Robbie! We all know how much trouble that thing got us into the first time! There's no way I'm touching that thing! It's Stephanie's now and I know she isn't crazy enough to use its magic!"

"But the magic is all gone! I just want to use it as a… uh… decoration! Yeah, that's it… decoration!"

"Then why don't _you_ ask her!?"

"Fine…" Robbie sighed. "I tried reasoning with you. But now I guess you've left me with no choice."

"What are you talking ab--"

Stingy was interrupted as he was struck by a stream of blue energy coils coming from behind Robbie. Remus slowly wheeled himself around the villain and approached Stingy, while using the Hypno-Ray on him. Stingy's eyes were now wide and diluted, therefore making him susceptible to suggestion.

"Okay, now." Remus said as he leaned in closer to the boy's ear. "I want you to do one simple thing for me."


	12. Rough Riders

**Chapter 12**

When Trixie's mother had called her home, Stephanie decided to pay Clyde a visit. As soon as the pink-haired girl entered the Track One, Stingy was now free to carry out Remus' devious instructions. The sleepy-eyed brat remained calm and collected as he approached the mayor's house, looked around and casually entered through the front door.

He walked along the hallway and found the door leading to Stephanie's room. Once inside, he closed the door quietly and surveyed the overly pink room, deciding where to look first.

* * *

Elsewhere, Sportacus flipped and sprinted his way across town, tracking down the newly escaped Remus Tard. Once he got to the school playground, he noticed little Gloria and Ritchie sitting on the swing set.

"Gloria! Ritchie!" He called as he approached them.

"Hi, Sportacus." They said chirpily.

"Hi, kids. Listen, you haven't seen an old man in a wheelchair pass by here, have you?"

The two children blankly looked at each other for a moment then turned to Sportacus, shaking their heads.

The hero in blue simply nodded. "Okay, guys. Thanks anyway. If you happen to see him, though, come and get me as soon as possible, all right? Don't try anything that could get you hurt."

"We won't." Little Gloria smiled.

"Okay. I'm off to warn the mayor!" Sportacus said as he leapt away.

* * *

Outside the Track One, Stephanie and Clyde were laughing to each other's stories while sitting on one of the ship's lowered side ramps. As they talked, the clouds slowly passed by them and sifted through the fins of the aircraft.

"So there I was…" Stephanie continued her story. "Wearing my hero outfit with a rope tied around my belt. I gave Sportacus the thumbs up and out I went, running along the side of his airship. I was so nervous; I thought the rope might give out. But then I saw the office window poking through that black tower and so I went for it. And as I swung forward, I was thinking to myself: 'Man, what am I doing!? I must be crazy!' You know?"

Clyde nodded with a chuckle. "So then what happened? Did you break through the window?"

"Yeah. And there he was, just looking at me in disbelief. He didn't think I could do it. And for a moment, neither did I. But I knew all of LazyTown was counting on me, so I couldn't back down. Especially since I had made it so far. Did you ever have to go through something like that?"

The green-eyed boy shook his head. "No. Trust me, Stephanie. You're more of a hero than I am."

"That's not true, Clyde. I'm sure you handle yourself well under pressure."

"I wish you were right."

"Well, what about that day with Terrance?"

"I didn't really save anyone, Steph. I just untied the kids and brought you home. That's all."

"But my uncle told me you punished Terrance."

"I shouldn't have. Not in the way I did, anyway."

"What did you do?"

"Something… _unusual_."

"Tell me." She put her hand on his shoulder.

Clyde's heartbeat was now rapidly growing. "I, uhh… I don't think you'd understand."

"Sure, I would. Just tell me."

* * *

In Robbie's lair, Stingy entered from one of the lowering tubes and approached Remus. The old man wheeled his way towards the young boy with an ambitious grin on his face. Stingy, still under the influence of the Hypno-Ray, held his hand out and lowered the gold medallion and chain onto Remus' lap.

"Excellent, Stingy!" Remus exclaimed as he clasped his entire hand over the amulet. "Well done! And now, Rotten! Give me my device!"

"You mean this stick-cube-gun thingy?" Robbie asked as he held up the long contraption.

Remus snatched his device away and flipped the small switch on the handle. A low humming noise then started to emanate as Remus turned himself around towards the exit.

"Come, Rotten!" He commanded. "We must hurry!"

Outside, Robbie struggled to hold up the top of the entry tower as Remus slowly climbed out. Stingy followed behind him and accidentally stepped over Robbie's foot. This, of course, caused the resident villain to scream out in pain and drop of the heavy lid on his fingers.

_**SLAM!**_

"OWW!" Robbie screeched as he growled furiously at the heavens. "Why me!? Huh!? Why me!?"

"Robert!" Remus yelled as he walked along the grass, using his device as a cane. "Quit playing around!"

"I'm Robbie Rotten! I don't play around!"

As Remus slowly walked up a small hill, he felt a gentle breeze pass by him. The old man took a deep breath and could immediately feel the magic aura tingling within.

"Perfect." He exhaled with such passion. "Robert! Your energy drainer, please!"

Remus detached the handle from his device and dropped it on the floor as Robbie handed over his energy drainer. The old man then attached Robbie's device into his own and aimed for the sky.

"I hope this works." He closed his eyes as he pulled the trigger.

With its sophisticated and complex machinery, the long and slender device locked on to every airborne particle of magic energy and like a vacuum, sucked it in. The energy particles sifted through the air as it passed down the device's tube and was safely transferred into the storage cube. Remus noticed the blinking light emanating from his cube and turned the device off.

"All done!" He said, pulling out the medallion from his pocket.

"What now?" Robbie asked, almost cowering away.

Remus held up the medallion and pointed the nozzle of his contraption towards the gaping hole where the green gem was. The old man flipped another switch and pulled the trigger again, releasing the raw energy he had collected.

* * *

Still outside the Track One, Stephanie continued to try and milk the information out of Clyde by clinging onto his arm and giving him "the look". Yeah, you know what I mean.

"Come on, please?" She started to giggle.

"No." Clyde grinned as he was trying not to blush. "No way!"

"You're laughing!"

"No, I'm not!" He tried to hide his face.

"Yes, you are!" She put her hand on his face and turned it over to face hers. "You see? You're laughing!"

"So what?" He couldn't help but giggle.

Stephanie and Clyde then realized their faces were a little too close to each other's but neither one seemed to mind. Stephanie's hand remained on Clyde's face, so the boy decided to put his on hers. For a brief moment, they remained silent and gazed into each other's eyes, breathing rather heavily. As Clyde and Stephanie leaned in—

_**CRASH!**_

Stephanie and Clyde were forced back into the airship as it rocked from the powerful streams of green light hitting its outer hull.

_**A/N: KISS? NEVER! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! **_

The clouds suddenly darkened and pulled together as the residents of LazyTown looked up at the strange occurrence.

"Clyde!" Stephanie hung onto a pole. "What's going on!?"

"I don't know!" The young boy said as he crawled over to the controls.

Sportacus wasted no time in heading back for his airship as his crystal went berserk. It was the same as last time. The louder than usual, sharp ringing noise almost deafened the hero but he remained his course and piloted the enormous aircraft through the dark clouds.

"Remus." He said under his breath as he searched for the Track One.

The green and silver airship continued rocking from every bolt of energy knocking against it. Inside, Clyde struggled with the controls as he tried piloting it away from the black cloud that was approaching them.

"Stephanie!" He called out. "Hang onto something!"

Another sudden jolt caused the boy to fall back and hit his head on the hard wooden floor. Stephanie gasped and tried to reach for him but the shockwaves continued to ground her.

"Clyde!" She desperately tried to reach for him. "Clyde, are you okay!?"

There was no reply. The young boy remained motionless as the Track One suddenly switched to autopilot and circled around the heart of the storm.

"Clyde, wake up! Please!"

The sound of Stephanie's voice started to ring in Clyde's head but for some reason, another voice called out to him. A voice that told him to shut down and let the "others" take over. Slowly, Clyde opened his eyes and immediately jumped back up on his feet with a strange grin on his face.

"Clyde!" Stephanie exclaimed.

The green-eyed boy ignored her and took out some sort of flipper latch from his pocket and spoke into it. "Captain's log, stardate 8454. The Enterprise has somehow spun out of orbit from our destination but as… _God_ as my witness, I _will_ get us home!"

"Clyde?" Stephanie was bemused from the boy's sudden Shat-attack.

Clyde then front-flipped his way over to the pilot seat and strapped himself in as the storm continued to rock the airship.

"Full power to engines, Mr. Sulu!" The faux Shatner said to no one in particular as he switched the controls.

The Track One tilted to the right and dived straight into a dark swirl in the middle of the sky. The magic energy intensified and pounded the airship mercilessly as Stephanie hung onto the back of Clyde's seat. It was then when she noticed Clyde switching between voices, talking to himself without reason while piloting the airship through the storm.

"Scotty! I need all the power you can muster, mister! _'But sir! I do not think the dilithium crystals will hold'_!"

"Who are you talking to!?" Stephanie looked around in a panic.

"Fascinating." Clyde switched to another voice. "This sudden energy wave appears to be emanating from the surface. Perhaps here in LazyTown. I suggest we concentrate all photon torpedoes on the source. _'Excellent idea, Mr. Spock'_!"

"What torpedoes!?" Stephanie desperately tried to understand what was happening. "Clyde, you're not making any sense! What's going on!?"

"Torpedoes have been exhausted. I suggest a new plan, Captain. '_Suggestion, Spock_?' rotate ourselves back to the surface. '_Agreed! Scotty_'!" He then put on his Scottish accent again. "Aye, sir! I'm already on it!"

"Oh no!" Stephanie bowed her head and braced herself for the worst.

The Track One began to spin around as it pierced its way through the black cloud and descended towards a large body of water. Stephanie looked out from the windshield and immediately recognized where they were heading.

"Clyde, we're passing the Yawn River! Pull up! Pull up!"

"Worry not, little lady! For the only thing we have to fear is fear itself!" Clyde did his best FDR as he obeyed Stephanie's command.

Although Clyde managed to pull his airship up, he couldn't prevent the fins from gliding across the water. This, of course, made the task more difficult for the young boy as he struggled with the controls, eventually giving out and halting suddenly on the nearest body of land.

"Yee-haw!" Clyde suddenly turned hick. "Shoot, I'm gon' tell ya what! That there was the best dang rodeo I'd ever been in! The way that bronco was a-buckin' and a-chuckin', I almost stinkered mah britches!"

Stephanie sighed from relief that the nightmare was now over and got up on her feet. She took another moment to breathe as she leaned against the wall panel of the ship, accidentally opening an emergency hatch.

"Uh-oh…" She gasped as she fell out of the beached airship and into the raging river. "Clyde! Help me!"

"Eh?" A now Cockney Clyde turned his head to see the pink girl rapidly flowing away. "What's all this, then? Oi! Steph! Get back 'ere! Now's not the time to go scarper off!"

"HELP!"

For a moment, Clyde snapped out of his funk and called out to her. "I'm coming, Steph! Don't' worry!"

In an instant, Clyde jumped into the river and fought his way against the current in an attempt to bring back his dearest "friend".

"Clyde!" She kept calling out for him.

"I can hear you! Just keep calling my name!" He swam faster and harder.

"Clyde! Cly--" She was suddenly silenced.

"Stephanie!" The boy started to worry as he spotted her leaning against a fallen branch.

Clyde pushed himself through the rapids and made his way over to an unconscious Stephanie, placing her over the heavy branch. He turned the large piece of wood around then pedaled Stephanie and himself back towards dry land.

"_I'm Popeye the Sailor Man! I'm Popeye the Sailor Man_!" Clyde sang as his sanity left once again.

Once they approached the shore, Clyde gently placed Stephanie on the sand and kicked the log away. Then, realizing he had succeeded in rescuing Stephanie, Clyde began pounding his chest and let off a poorly executed Tarzan yell that ended with an abrupt cough.

"Stephanie?" Clyde leaned over her motionless body. "Steph? Are you okay?"

He noticed she wasn't breathing and placed his head against her chest to confirm his suspicion. Immediately, he opened her mouth wide and started to press against her chest to get her lungs pumping again. After a few moments of failed attempts, he then placed his mouth over hers and released the air from his lungs. One massive blow was all it took for the pink-haired girl to come around. She coughed up the large amount of water and gasped heavily when she saw Clyde's worried expression staring down on her.

"Clyde…" She breathed heavily.

"Oh, thank Hoffa." He sighed from relief.

The two then wrapped their arms joyfully around each other until Stephanie noticed the sign standing straight ahead.

"Where are we?" Clyde asked.

Stephanie just pointed over to the sign and smiled. "We're in HazyTown."


	13. Stingy's Rampage

**Chapter 13**

The black clouds thickened and the green lightning intensified as Sportacus continued piloting his airship through the storm, searching for his nephew. He had been searching for over an hour and the time had now come to make a decision. Should he continue searching for Clyde or head back to LazyTown and hunt down Remus?

"Clyde…" Sportacus said to himself as the airship came to a stop.

The above-average hero knew his nephew was more than capable of taking care of himself and that Remus' threat had to be disposed of at once. With a hesitant sigh, Sportacus turned his ship around and headed back for LazyTown.

* * *

Back on the surface, Remus continued absorbing the magic aura surrounding him as more and more sparks of energy shot up towards the sky. He was completely aware of his affect on the weather and didn't care who got hurt in the process. The old man laughed maniacally as his body started to change, growing slightly younger. This caused Robbie to freak out while Stingy remained under hypnosis.

"Uhh… you okay there, Remus?" Robbie almost gagged at the sight.

"YES!" The evil founder shouted as the bright green energy suddenly died out.

Remus looked at his medallion and kissed the newly rebuilt green gem in the center. Then he realized the changes in his body and tossed his invention away, walking with ease and without the use of a support.

"Well, I look _slightly_ younger." He grinned. "But it's a start!"

Remus tucked his medallion back under his shirt and noticed Sportacus' airship heading their way.

"Blue boy's coming." He said to Stingy. "I want you to take care of your little friends. Pick a fight with them or something."

Stingy was confused. "A fight?"

"Or whatever you can think of. Just make sure you put them in some sort of trouble so what's-his-name will come running to you guys first."

"What do I do?" Robbie scratched his head.

"Catch."

Remus tossed the Hypno-Ray over to Robbie and started to walk away. Robbie looked at the contraption then over to Remus and called out to him.

"Hey, this thing's useless to me now!" Robbie cried. "You broke the machine I was going to use!"

"Artificial reality is no way to break your enemies, Robert." The old man turned his head. "As I said before, it isn't their heads you want to mess with. It's their heart. Think about it."

With that said, Remus used the magic from his medallion to transport him away from LazyTown. While Stingy ran off to cause more trouble, Robbie stood alone at the top of the hill and took a look at his device.

"Okay, Sportakook." He grinned. "It's _my_ turn."

* * *

At the playground, Trixie, Pixel and Ziggy took cover beneath the slide as the winds started to pick up. Using his wrist scanners, Pixel detected the strange weather patterns coming from elsewhere in town.

"That's weird." The gizmo guy said.

"What is it?" Trixie asked.

"Well, I'm picking up a huge energy reading coming from somewhere in town. Funny thing is, I think I recognize it."

"What's causing it?"

After a few minutes, the winds died down and the skies cleared up. The sun pierced through the clouds and lit up the town all over again as if nothing had happened. The kids all got out from under the slide and looked up, bewildered by the strange turn of events.

"Okay, that was weird." Trixie raised an eyebrow. "One minute it's the end of the world, the next it's 'Good Morning Starshine'! I don't get it!"

"Who cares?" Ziggy wiped the sweat from his brow. "That was scary! I was shaking so bad, I dropped all my candy!"

Then from out of nowhere, they saw Stingy approaching them with a diluted glare and an empty smile. Trixie simply waved at the boy.

"Hey, Stingy!" She called out. "Where were you?"

The obsessive brat ignored her as he pulled out a baseball bat from behind and took a swing. Luckily, Trixie managed to dodge the attack but the thought of her friend doing this to her caught her by surprise.

"Whoa! What are you doing, Stingy! Stop it!"

"I… I must distract Sportacus." Stingy swung again.

"Stingy, stop!" Pixel snuck up behind the boy, grabbing him by the arms. "We're your friends! Don't do this!"

"I… I can't." Stingy shoved Pixel back and started swinging his arms around like a maniac.

"Uhh… what is he doing?" A very disturbed Ziggy asked.

"I don't know." Trixie shook her head and watched as Stingy ran around in circles, swinging and screaming unpronounceable obscenities.

"Shouldn't we calm him down?"

"Yeah. Let me try."

Sportacus finally made it back into LazyTown and was immediately alerted by his crystal. The hero in blue sprinted his way across town and found the kids fleeing from Stingy's slightly odd rampage.

"What's going on?" He asked as he started for them but was immediately cut off by a stream of blue energy coils.

The hero froze in place and slowly turned around to face Robbie, who was proudly holding the Hypno-Ray before him.

"Ha-ha! It works!" He cheered. "Okay, Sportadoofus! Now you're playing _my_ game by _my _rules!"

Meanwhile, Stingy continued to go after his friends and managed to pounce on Ziggy. He grabbed hold of the youngster's lollipop and started biting at the tip much to Ziggy's horror.

"You monster!" He cried. "Stop chewing on it! No! Please!"

"Stingy, stop it!" Trixie grabbed hold of the boy's arms. "You're not acting like yourself!"

Pixel did a scan of their friend and picked up on yet another strange energy reading. "Hey, guys! If I'm reading this thing right, Stingy's been hypnotized!"

"Aw, shut up!" Stingy said as he head-butted his friend in the chest.

"What do we do, Trixie!?" Ziggy put his hands over his eyes.

"I don't know!" The pig-tailed girl shook her head.

Stingy somehow managed to knock both Pixel and Ziggy out then turned his attention over to Trixie. The young girl panicked and was soon cornered near the wall as Stingy picked up the baseball bat, ready to knock her out as well.

"Batter up!" He giggled.

"Stingy…" Trixie pleaded before ducking a swing. "Stingy, please!"

"I must… obey!"

"Okay, that does it! HI-KEEBA!" Trixie cried as she swung her leg out and aimed at Stingy's groin. Unfortunately for her, the violent brat caught her foot and twisted her around, forcing her to land on the floor. As she got up, Stingy came even closer and was ready to hurt her some more.

"All right…" Trixie gulped, knowing she had no other choice. "Plan B!"

As Stingy held his arms out, ready to manhandle her, Trixie threw herself towards him and wrapped him in a tight embrace. Then the unthinkable happened as she went in and pressed her lips against his, startling the boy and confusing him at the same time. After almost thirty seconds of solid smooching, Trixie parted from the boy and watched as he fell to his knees and snapped out of his trance. When Ziggy and Pixel came around, they hurried over to their friend and watched as Stingy tried to piece together what had just happened.

"Uhh… Where am I? What happened?" Stingy looked around nervously.

"You were hypnotized." Pixel answered. "And for some reason, whoever it was that did this to you, they wanted you to hurt us."

"But why?"

Pixel and Ziggy shrugged then noticed Trixie standing quietly and blushing for some reason.

"Uhh, Trixie?" Pixel started. "How did you get him to snap out of it?"

The girl just grinned. "He just needed a woman's touch."


	14. Return To HazyTown

**Chapter 14**

In the mayor's office, Trixie and the others reported to Milford and Bessie about Stingy's strange behavior and the sudden change in the weather.

"Yes, I know." Milford nodded. "The storm is gone now. And for some reason, I believe whoever was responsible for Stingy's behavior is also the one behind the strange weather pattern."

"Really?" Pixel's eyes widened. "Who?"

"It's come to my attention that Remus Tard has escaped from Lazy Hills."

The kids all gasped. "Oh no!"

Then there was a pause.

"Wait, who?" Trixie asked.

"The founder of LazyTown! The ex-superhero, formerly known as Number 9! That guy who turned me to stone!"

"Oh, _him_!"

"Yes. Sportacus said he was going to find his nephew to help him track down Tard but I haven't heard from him since. And what's more, I can't find Stephanie anywhere!"

"I thought she was with Clyde." Pixel said.

"She was!" Trixie nodded. "She _is_! I don't know where they could be!"

* * *

Stephanie and Clyde arrived in city limits of HazyTown, where several residents were currently going about their normal day. At the town center, Stephanie recognized the old building standing out with its medieval structure.

Clyde could see Stephanie's face light up at the sight of the building. "You know this place?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh. That's where we'll find Astral and the order of monks I told you about."

"Oh. Okay so if this is HazyTown, then where's all the fog you told me about?"

"I told you. We broke Remus' spell and tore down the wall. HazyTown is back to the way it used to be."

"Then why call it HazyTown if it isn't hazy anymore?"

"You know, you could say the same thing about LazyTown. But we don't, do we?"

Clyde chuckled because he knew the pink-haired girl was right and caved in with a nod. Stephanie simply grinned and grabbed the boy's hand, leading him inside the building.

"Come on, Clyde. Let's go say hi."

"To who? That Astral guy?"

"Uh-huh."

As they entered the cathedral, Stephanie and Clyde noticed the hallways lit with several candles and a small group of red-cloaked monks remodeling the interior.

"Hello?" Stephanie called out to them. "Can anyone tell me where Astral is?"

One of the monks, with a familiar looking scar on his face, turned his head and grinned at the sight of the pink-haired girl.

"Stephanie? Is that you?" The monk asked.

"Hi, Demetrius." Stephanie smiled.

"Bless me, child. What brings you back here?" The man patted Stephanie on the head. "Is there more trouble back home?"

"Sort of." She shrugged. "But it's not as bad as before. We just got a little sidetracked from home and wound up here. We just thought we'd say hi while we're here."

"We?" He then noticed Clyde standing awkwardly behind Stephanie. "Oh, I see. Who is this?"

"My name's Clydesdale." The boy shook the monk's hand. "But you can call me Clyde. I'm Sportacus' nephew."

"Sportacus? Oh, yes. I forgot. Number 10."

Stephanie grabbed hold of Clyde's arm, much to his joy, and looked around the old building. "Where's Astral?"

"Right here." The old man snuck up on them, startling the pink-haired girl.

"Astral!"

"Hello, dear. I see you're doing well."

As the old man smiled, Stephanie could notice her old friend seemed to look a lot older than before. His age was becoming more apparent perhaps because of Remus' broken spell.

"Astral, you look… old." She said softly.

"Well, _older_." The monk chuckled. "Because Remus' curse has been lifted and our town is able to breathe again, nature is starting to take its course. That means I won't be around for long, my dear."

Stephanie stood silent for a moment. "…Astral? What are you saying?"

The old man chuckled and put his arms around the youngsters, leading them along the hallways. He changed the subject, asking whether or not things back in LazyTown were all right. Stephanie and Clyde exchanged glances and just shrugged.

"They're fine, I guess." Stephanie nodded. "Well, I mean… there were a few bumpy roads on our way here but nothing too big."

Clyde could tell Stephanie was still a little shaken up from his earlier episode and started to feel a bit guilty. With a gulp, he tried to explain.

"Listen, Stephanie… I wanted to tell you--"

"We should go see Bob." Stephanie interrupted Clyde in his tracks. "He'll want to meet you."

"I'll take you to him." Astral said as he led the way.

As they continued walking down the halls, Astral examined Clyde from the corner of his eye and grinned.

"So Sportacus is your uncle?" He asked.

Clyde simply nodded. "Yes."

"I can see the family resemblance. Although, I'd have thought you would be wearing a sort of hero outfit."

"I'm no hero. At least, not in the way _you_ think."

"Oh no? You seem to be a pretty fit young man. I'm sure you carry all of your uncle's traits with you."

"Apart from a few others." Clyde said under his breath, looking away from Stephanie.

"Did you say something?"

"No."

"And I suppose your father is a well respected hero back home?"

"He was."

"Was?"

"He died when I was younger."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Stephanie put her hand on Clyde's and gave him a sympathetic stare, whispering over to him. "You never told me that."

"It's not important." He whispered back.

When they reached a doorway decorated with Easter egg cutouts and candy bar wrappers, Astral knocked three times and called out for the guardian of the cave.

"Bob? Are you in there?" Astral asked. "There's someone here who wants to see you."

"Oh yeah!? Tell 'em to go away! I ain't seein' no one!" A gruff voice said from behind the door. "Whoa, hold on a minute! It ain't that lemur Sheila I met the other night, is it? You tell her I ain't too big on cliffs and that if she wants to jump, then---"

"Bob, it's me! Stephanie!" The pink-haired girl cried with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the door burst open and the little pink rabbit jumped into the girl's arms. Stephanie was tickled by Bob's fur and couldn't help but giggle.

"How ya doin', kid!?" Bob asked before hacking back some phlegm. "Ooh, sorry 'bout that. I laid off them cigars a while back and now I'm hooked on them dog bone thingies."

"Well that's good." She pet the rabbit. "I want you to meet my good friend Clyde. He's Sportacus' nephew."

"Put her there, Mac." Bob said as he held out his paw for Clyde to shake.

Clyde, however, had never seen a talking pink rabbit with all the charm of a Brooklyn lavatory attendant and was left a bit unsettled. Eventually, he shook the rabbit's paw and smiled uncomfortably, taking Stephanie to the side.

"Am I seeing things or is that rabbit talking?"

Stephanie nodded with a grin. "He's talking, all right. Trust me. You're not seeing things."

"So what brings ya back to HazyTown, kid?" Bob hopped on the girl's shoulder. "Youse stayin' outta trouble?"

"Maybe." Stephanie teased with a shrug.

"Come, Stephanie." Astral began down another hallway. "I have something to show you."

"What is it?"

The old man lit a torch and opened a secret doorway, where no one else could see them go into. Bob hopped from Stephanie's shoulder and onto the floor, eventually entering the hidden room.

"We have much to talk about." The monk said as he led the way. "Perhaps it is fate that you return to us now when things are about to get a little more… shall we say, interesting?"

With a gulp, Stephanie grabbed hold of Clyde's hand and followed Bob and Astral into the doorway.

"Are you okay?" Clyde asked.

"I don't know." Stephanie shrugged. "I think I may be getting scared again."

"You don't have to be. I'm right here."

_**A/N: …Oh, God.**_


	15. Secret Of The Elements

**Chapter 15**

Robbie grinned mischievously as Sportacus stood before him in his lair as a slave to his power. The villain paced around the hero, his Hypno-Ray in hand, and tried to decide what to do with his nemesis first. Should he humiliate him in front of his friends or perhaps force him to do something unexpectedly awful, thus breaking their trust. Seconds later, Robbie knew exactly what he wanted Sportacus to do and pushed the hero down onto his fuzzy orange chair. He reclined the seat and made sure Sportacus was extra comfy then pulled up another chair, sitting directly across from him.

"Okay, Sportakook." Robbie said. "I want you tell me everything. I want to know your past, your biggest fears and your deepest, darkest secrets. _Everything_…"

"Everything?" Sportacus asked in a trance.

"Yes!" Robbie eagerly nodded. "Start by telling me where you came from!"

"Where I came from? A far-off land. A _great_ land called… _Aðalsteinn_."

"Do tell."

* * *

Back in HazyTown, Astral and Bob led Stephanie and Clyde through a dark hallway, where they eventually entered a small round tomb. The chubby pink rabbit grabbed a torch and lit the others standing on the walls, illuminating the room. Stephanie and Clyde noticed a stone table in the center with a wooden box lying on top then turned to see Astral removing a key from inside his red cloak.

"What is this place?" Stephanie asked.

"A safe haven." The old man said as he opened the box.

"For what?"

"Stephanie, do you still have the gold amulet Remus once possessed?"

She thought for a second. "What, you mean the one that gave him all those weird powers?"

"Yes. The green amulet inside was destroyed, was it not?"

"I think so."

"Wait, what's going on?" Clyde started to get confused.

"We found another one." The monk said. "When the Cave of Despair collapsed, some men stumbled upon another golden amulet."

"Really?" Stephanie almost cringed.

"Yes." He then held out the medallion towards the girl. "We believe it is another medallion of the elements. Remus' gem was green and therefore indicated the power of Earth. The gem for this particular amulet is red."

"Which would indicate what, exactly?"

"Observe."

Astral turned the medallion away from the group as the red gem in the center began to glow. In an instant, the flames on the torches intensified and eventually came together as one giant flame, towering everyone inside the tomb. With a flick of his wrist, Astral controlled the fire stream and caused it to swirl around the room before he eventually broke it back down onto the torches.

"My guess would be that this is the Fire gem." Bob snickered.

Astral nodded. "Yes. I knew there were more amulets out there but I did not expect to find one here."

Stephanie paused for a moment, remembering the strange weather incident that brought her back to HazyTown in the first place, and looked up at the old man.

"Astral, why do I get the feeling something's not right?" She asked him. "Like everything's not back to normal like it should be?"

"Tell me, Stephanie. How did you get here?"

"Clyde…" She paused for a moment, not wanting to give away her friend's unusual condition. "…There was a storm in LazyTown. Clyde and I were just hanging around inside his airship when it came all of a sudden."

"And I trust this was no regular thunderstorm."

"What are you getting at, Astral?"

The old man turned to Bob, who shrugged in return, then sighed. "I have reason to believe that Remus may have returned to power."

"But how?"

"I wish I knew. But somehow, since I was previously the owner of the Earth amulet, I can still feel the gem's power. And earlier today, I felt a great disturbance. I knew right away it was coming from LazyTown. And when you and your friend showed up, it only proved my theory."

Stephanie shook her head. "It doesn't make any sense, though. I destroyed the gem! I know I did! When the Trinity crystals united, I used their power to break Remus' spell!"

"And I'm afraid he's found a way to regenerate the magic gem. He may have taken back the amulet when you weren't looking."

"I would have seen him. And anyways, without his magic he's just a frail old man." A horrifying thought suddenly entered her mind. "…Unless he found a way to get himself a patsy."

Clyde felt incredibly lost and stepped forward. "Okay, does anyone want to tell me what's going on?"

"The Trinity's in trouble again."

Astral slowly nodded. "And if I know Remus well enough, he _will_ be seeking his revenge. But this time, he will _not_ be alone. I fear the worst for the Trinity, Stephanie. If my suspicions are correct, then…"

Stephanie eagerly leaned forward. "..Then what?"

"Then Remus will be searching for the other amulets to further increase his power. And if he does, he will be practically unstoppable. He'll have hundreds of thousands at his command, doing his bidding and he may forcefully recruit people from the Trinity to build his army."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Nor do I. But we must be prepared."

"For what, exactly?" Clyde started to massage his head.

"War."

Astral placed the fire amulet in his cloak and started for the exit, prompting Stephanie to catch up to him.

"Astral, where are you going?" She asked him.

"We must board Clyde's airship at once and warn CrazyTown." He simply said, continuing into the hall.

* * *

Sportacus remained seated in the orange chair, describing the beauty of his homeland. After a while, Robbie got bored hearing about Aðalsteinn and decided to move onto another subject.

"Okay, that's enough!" Robbie interrupted the hero. "Tell me about yourself. Any siblings? Mommy and daddy?"

"My real name is Magnús Íþróttaálfurinn."

"Say what!?" Robbie was taken aback by Sportacus' unusually long name. "Geez. I think I'll stick to calling you Sportakook."

"I am the youngest of three sons from my mother Jezelle and my father Hallbjörn."

Robbie nodded along, taking down notes as Sportacus spoke. "Youngest, huh? And what about your brothers? Are _they_ uptight superheroes in blue, also?"

"My brothers are dead."

An awkward pause fell over Robbie as his eyes shot out and an uncomfortable grin slowly vanished from his face. "Dead?"

Sportacus nodded. "My brother Jon was training to be the next hero in our family. But a tragic turn of events caused him to sacrifice his life, leaving me to follow in his footsteps."

"Wow." Robbie was starting to feel even more uncomfortable.

"He left behind a wife and his son, Clydesdale. He's a good boy, training to be a hero himself."

"And your other brother?"

Sportacus moved his head about as if the hypnosis was starting to wear off. Robbie quickly aimed the Hypno-Ray at Sportacus and gave him a full zap across the chest. After a few seconds, Robbie repeated his question and Sportacus was more than willing to answer.

"My oldest brother Berto died when he was just a boy. I only knew him when I was 5. I don't remember what happened exactly but my mother knows everything."

Robbie slapped his forehead. "Oh! Don't tell me, I'm gonna have to milk _her_ for information!"

"No… wait." Sportacus started to remember something. "I do remember the last time I saw him."

"When was that?"

"The day he was going before the council to take up the mantle of Number 10."

_**A/N: …Strange twist, no? No? Oh. Never mind.**_


	16. Rawhide!

**_A/N: And now witness as I kill the traditional "romantic duet". Ha ha hah HAHAHAHAHA!!!_**

**Chapter 16**

"War!? Are you crathy!?" The Professor spat through his lisp. "Oh no, no, no, no! Nuh-uh! We're not having any of that again!"

"I wish I had better news to tell you, Professor." Astral bowed his head.

With the use of Clyde's airship, getting to CrazyTown only took about ten minutes. After getting reacquainted with her old friends, Stephanie led the others to the Professor's office and told him their new situation. Now the lisp-suffering professor was about to have a panic attack in his own office, freaking out in front of a pink-haired girl, her green-eyed "boyfriend", a creepy old monk and a chubby pink bunny that talked.

"I don't like thith! I don't like thith one bit!" He stomped his foot.

"Y'all weldin' in here or somethin'!?" Jasper poked his head in. "I's was just askin' on account that I kept hearin' some stompin' an' such."

"No, Jathper. Everything'th fine. I wath justht telling Thtephanie and her friendth that we're not going to war again!"

The old man suddenly got excited, dancing around in place and firing off a pair of pistols in the air."War!? Yeeee-haaaaawww! I remember them's the good ol' days!"

Stephanie just smirked. "Well, _he_ seems pretty happy about it."

"Please don't misunderstand me." Astral stepped forward. "I am merely stating that if we don't retrieve the other two amulets in time, situations will occur beyond our power and the only way to bring them to an end is by…"

The Professor knew what Astral was trying to say and just nodded. "I underthtand. I gueth if worth cometh to worth, we'll do what we have to."

Clyde gently pulled Stephanie away and whispered to her. "Hey, do you understand what this guy's saying? I'm totally lost."

"You get used to it." She shrugged with a grin.

Just then, Ma entered the building with an apron over her and jingling a triangle in her hand. "All right, everyone! Vittles is on! Come and get 'em while they're hot!"

"Actually, madam, we must be going." Astral said as he headed for the door. "But thank you, anyway."

Ma didn't move an inch as she gave the old man a life-threatening stare. "I said supper's ready."

"…Y-yes, ma'am."

* * *

Somewhere in the mountains of LazyTown, Remus began practicing with his magic amulet and getting better reacquainted with his powers. He lifted a set of boulders with his magic and hurled them across the sky, eventually forming them into one long rocky spear. He levitated his gigantic weapon and dropped it from the sky, watching as it crushed an entire section trees. 

"Good." He said catching his breath. "…I'm getting there."

* * *

Inside the hotel, Stephanie and her friends sat around in the dining room as Ma and Alice brought out the dishes and laid them on the table. After being served, Clyde eyeballed the strange cooking before him and watched as Stephanie and the others ate the food with ease. 

"What's the matter?" Stephanie turned to her friend. "You're not hungry?"

He shrugged. "Uhh… sure. It's just… what is this?"

"Oh, that there's mah specialty!" Ma grinned. "Charred chili chutney chicken! Mm-mm, you ain't gonna find none of that back home, I tell ya what!"

"Try it!" Stephanie urged. "Trust me, you'll love it!"

Clyde played with his food for a moment before actually taking a piece with his fork and moving it slowly toward his mouth. After moving it around in his mouth for a few seconds, Clyde got sucked into its bizarre yet satisfying flavor.

"Whoa." Was all he said.

"Told you." Stephanie winked as she continued eating.

"After this, we should all head over to Louie's and throw Stephanie a nice welcome back party." Ma suggested.

"Oh, Ma. We don't have to do that." Stephanie humbly shook her head. "I won't be staying long anyway."

"Oh, come on!" The round woman pleaded.

"Who's Louie?" Clyde asked.

"My husband." Alice said. "He owns the local canteen. He's workin' late tonight."

Bob greedily wiped his plate clean, leaving almost nothing behind. With a loud belch, the pink rabbit fell on his back with a satisfied sigh until Ma got up from her seat and poured even more food onto his dish.

"C'mon, hun!" She said. "I know you got room in that belly a-yours for more!"

"Hey, don't mind if I do!" Bob belched again.

The chubby rabbit eagerly went at it, stuffing his face more and more and more, savoring Ma's unique concoction. "Say, this is really good! What is it?"

"Oh, it's just some steamed cabbage and rabbit."

"Oh, really? 'Cuz I thought_…_" He then suddenly froze in place. "Did youse say 'rabbit'?"

"Yup."

"Oh no…"

Later on, everyone headed for Louie's canteen, where they were greeted by a bunch of rowdy, hooting and hollering CrazyTowners. With a snap of a whip, Louie managed to calm them down and greet his friends as they all sat down at the bar.

"You guys calm down! This is a family establishment!" Louie griped before patting Stephanie on the head. "Hey, Steph. It's good to see you."

"Hi, Louie."

"Who's this?" He asked as he shook Clyde's hand.

"My name's Clyde." The boy answered. "I'm Sportacus' nephew."

"Really?" He then called out to one of the waitresses. "Hey, bring us a round of Paradise Punch!"

As they all sat around drinking some of Louie's newest fruity concoction, Clyde could hear the music coming from the back of the canteen. The voice singing along to the tune was way off and began to irritate the green-eyed boy.

"Do I hear music?" He asked. "Good music but bad voice?"

"Hey, I hear it too." Stephanie looked around. "What is that, Louie?"

"I bought a new karaoke machine." He pointed across the room.

"A what!?" Jasper spat into his brass bucket. "That sounds like some kinda hippity-hop gadget or somethin'!"

"Well, sort of." Stephanie explained.

"Yeah, but who's doing that awful singing?" Alice asked.

They all turned around and were surprised to see Dramatik pouring his heart and soul rather pathetically over a rendition of "Cruel To Be Kind".

"Oh, I can't take… another… HEART… _ACHE_!" He moved around the small platform stage, performing in soliloquy rather than song over the music. "Though you say… Oh… oh… OH! OH! My friend! …I'm at my wit's end…"

"Is that Dramatik?" Stephanie asked, nearly shaking her head.

"Sure looks like him!" Ma giggled.

"Oh, great." Louie sighed. "He's been hitting the cranraz again."

"Cranraz?" Clyde raised an eyebrow.

"Cranberry-raspberry mix I made. I've never seen a guy get so buzzed and depressed over a smoothie before."

Dramatik continued displaying his idiocy. "CRUEL! …To be kind… IN THE RIGHT _MEASURE_! Cruel… TO BE _KIND_!? It's a very… _good_ sign… IT MEANS THAT I LOVE _YOU_! No, not you but _YOU_!... You must be… CRUEL! To be… _kind_."

Stephanie got up from her seat with Clyde right behind her and started for the stage in an attempt to lure Dramatik away.

"Where you goin', hun" Alice asked.

"I'm gonna get Dramatik before he does something _really _stupid." She chuckled.

Stephanie and Clyde walked onstage and grabbed the overacting buffoon by the arms and attempted to lead him off but he was unwilling to part from the microphone.

"No! Never!" He whined. "Let me be! I demand satisfaction!"

"Come on, Dramatik." Stephanie continued pulling him away. "You're sugar buzzed. I think you've had enough."

"Never!" He shook his fist upward. "I will not yield!"

"This guy's relentless!" A surprised Clyde said as he struggled with the man in black.

After a few moments of struggling, Dramatik managed to shove Clyde away and force him to knock into the karaoke machine. Seconds later, a new song came up which didn't suit Dramatik's taste and made him head back to the bar.

"_This_ song? No, I don't think so." He shook his head before leaving.

As Clyde and Stephanie were about to follow Dramaitk, they noticed all eyes were on them and that a familiar western theme was coming from the machine.

"Sing!" One of the patrons shouted.

"Yeah! Sing!" Said another.

Soon, more and more CrazyTowners urged Stephanie and Clyde to break into song much to the pink-haired girl's discomfort.

"Well _this_ is interesting." Clyde grinned.

"I don't know." Stephanie shook her head.

"What? Are you saying you, _Stephanie_, don't want to sing? Has the world gone mad!?"

"I don't know, it' just…" Stephanie feared Clyde would have another attack onstage and felt uneasy putting him on the spot. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"What are you talking about?"

"SING!" The audience continued to egg them on.

"OKAY!" Clyde shouted back as he turned around and pulled up a stool to sit on.

Stephanie stood around awkwardly, eventually pulling up a stool of her own and watched as Clyde performed in front of the rowdy CrazyTowners:

_Rollin' rollin' rollin'._

_  
Though the streams are swollen._

_  
Keep them doggies rolling._

_  
Rawhide!_

_  
Rain and wind and weather._

_  
Hell-bent for leather._

_  
Wishing my girl was by my side._

During that last line, Clyde put his arm around Stephanie, causing the girl to blush yet smile at the same time, while he went on singing with his oddly soothing voice:

_  
All the things I'm missin',_

_  
Good vittles, love and kissin'_

_  
are waiting at the end of my ride._

He then tapped her on the shoulder, indicating his need for assistance on the song. "_Move 'em on_!"

"_Head 'em up_!" Stephanie replied, thus turning this into a duet.

"_Head 'em up_!"

"_Move 'em on_!"

"_Move 'em on_!"

"_Head 'em up_!"

"_Rawhide_! _Cut 'em out_!"

"_Ride 'em in_!"

"_Ride 'em in_!"

"_Cut 'em out_!"

"_Cut 'em out_!"

"_Ride 'em in_!"

"_Rawhide_!"

During the musical interlude, several CrazyTowners, including an overexcited Jasper, began dancing on the tables while Stephanie grabbed Louie's attention. The canteen owner nodded and tossed his whip over to the young girl, where she would soon end the last few bars of the song, whipping things at random.

Clyde then continued, brining the song home. "_Rawhide_!"

"Hyah!" Stephanie screamed as she whipped a random bar table.

"_Rawhide_!"

"Hyah!"

_**WHHSSH!**_

"_Rawhide_!"

"Hyah!"

_**WHHSSH!**_

"_Raaaaaawhiiiiiiide_!"

"Hyah!"

_**WHHSSH!**_

"**RAWHIDE!**" They shouted in unison, literally ending the song with a bang.

Their performance was met with thunderous applause as the CrazyTowners rushed in and carried the two over their shoulders. Dramatik, a bit jealous, stood on the bar and waved his arms around to get their attention.

"What about me!? _I'm_ the performer, not _them_!" He tried to shout over their voices. "Blast it! It's not fair!"

"Oh, shut yer yap, Dramatik!" Ma flung a bottle at the man's head, knocking him out cold.

"Why didn't you tell me you could sing?" Stephanie asked Clyde with a bright smile on her face.

"You never asked." He teased as he playfully jabbed her shoulder.


	17. Who Do You Love?

**Chapter 17**

Later that night, after everyone had tucked away in bed at Ma's hotel, Stephanie crept out of bed and headed downstairs. Slowly, she descended into the hallway and passed the shortcut through the dining room. She eventually got to the front door and onto the lit porch, where Astral and the Professor were already waiting for her.

"What's so important that you had to speak to us in private?" Astral asked.

"It's about Clyde." Stephanie sighed. "I think something may be wrong with him."

The Professor nodded. "Yeah, I thought thothe panth made hith butt look big."

"What!? No! He's got a cute butt! No, wait! I mean--" Stephanie pounded her fist against her head and tried to get back on the subject. "Look! On the way to HazyTown, when we were caught in the storm, Clyde kind of… turned into someone else."

"Like a metamorphothith?"

She shook her head. "No. This wasn't something physical. It was something _mental_. I can tell. It was like one minute he was the same Clyde I know and lo--"

Stephanie failed to finish her sentence and shyly looked down while Astral knew right away what she was going to say. With a grin, he nodded along and motioned for her to continue.

"He started acting like someone out of the television." She finished her sentence. "I spent a wild, crazy and bumpy ride on that airship with Captain Kirk, Spock, Scotty and FDR! And I have no idea why!"

"Perhaps he was just playing around?" Astral suggested.

"No. We were in real danger at the time. He wouldn't have done something like that in a crisis. He was pretty sincere to me. I mean, he was speaking to me like he really _was_ James T. Kirk."

"Wath he frantic?" The Professor lisped.

"He _was_ pretty active. But so what? He's Sportacus' nephew. It's natural for him."

"It theemth to me that your friend Clyde here ith a genuine freak and mutht be shot at dawn."

"Professor!" Astral stomped on the man's foot.

_**STOMP!**_

"OW!"

"Stephanie, it would seem that Clyde has a multiple personality disorder."

"A what?"

"I don't know what triggers it in his case but I do know that it causes a person to enter another state of mind and act like someone he may know, someone from the television or someone completely original. That alternate personality takes over and causes him to do things he normally wouldn't do."

"But he saved me!" Stephanie tried to understand. "That's something Clyde would definitely do."

"I know. Maybe his heroic tendencies have somehow managed to sneak past his odd personas in a time of crisis."

The Professor shrugged. "Maybe the dude hath a crush on ya."

Another pause fell and Astral and Stephanie exchanged awkward glances to each other. The old man could see in the pink-haired girl's eyes that she was harboring special feelings for the boy and that perhaps they held a key to Clyde's illness.

"Stephanie…" Astral said with a large amount of suspicion in his voice. "…Is there something you want to tell me?"

The pink-haired girl looked down and slowly shook her head. "…N-no."

"Are you sure?" He put his hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know…"

"You… love him, don't you?"

Stephanie slowly looked up at the old man, biting her lower lip as it slightly trembled, then looked back down and nodded.

"I do." She whispered.

"Be careful with this one, Stephanie." Astral warned. "With his unique disorder, there's no telling who you're in love with. Is the person you care for the _rea_l Clyde? Or is he some other character living in his head?"

"He has to be the real deal, Astral… right?"

"Just ask yourself, child: Who do you love?"

The air was quiet for another few seconds unitl the Professor, being the idiot he is, suddenly came to a realization and dropped his jaw from surprise. "Hey, wait a minute! You like that guy, huh?"

With a sigh, Stephanie smacked her forhead. "Oy!"

_**A/N: That's all for now, I'm afraid. But I promise I'll update again before the weekend is over. No, seriously. No… no, wait! No! Put that fish down! No! Please! Ow! Hey!**_


	18. Second Thoughts

**Chapter 18**

Elsewhere in the mountains, Remus stood tall on a mound of rock and stared up at the full moon. His green gem was glowing as it continued emitting its magical aura around its master. The old man could feel his body regaining its strength again and aimed the amulet towards a random spot on the ground.

"Come to me!" He commanded.

In an instant, several chunks of rock and dirt tore from the ground and flew over to Remus, swirling around his arm. More and more bits of earth continued to swirl around the old man's limbs while the amulet remained glowing brightly and intensely. Soon, both of Remus' arms were completely covered with a smooth, rocky shell, giving him an idea.

"While I can't summon my army just yet…" He said to himself, examining his forearms. "…I think I can handle a couple of snotty kids on my own. And if Rotten has succeeded in driving the blue monkey out of town, there will be no one to stop me!"

* * *

Sportacus' instinct of falling asleep at precisely 8:08 had not failed him, despite being under Robbie's control. The hero was resting comfortably on the villain's orange chair, much to his disgust, but Robbie couldn't help but feel relieved after hearing all of Sportacus' secrets. Robbie had spent the last few hours compiling all the information and reprogramming his machine he had yet to use. As the clock struck twelve, he then headed for the kitchen and pulled out a piece of periwinkle cake from the fridge and made his way outside for some fresh air.

As he sat on top of the entrance hatch to his lair, the villain placed his cake to the side for a moment and took out a tape recorder from his pocket. After rewinding the tape, Robbie pressed the play button and listened to his notes on Sportacus as he enjoyed his midnight snack.

_Okay, uhh… this thing working?_

_**TAP! TAP! TAP!**_

_Yeah, sounds good. Okay! Umm… test subject…Sportadork. Real name: Maggie…uhh… something-or-other. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. So, uhh… yeah. _

_Okay, so he tells me he had two older brothers and that they're both gone. Oldest brother Jon died while saving people from a firing inferno. But this wasn't too long ago. Maybe a few years back. His oldest brother named Bert, Birdie, Berto—something like that, wound up missing but was presumed dead. I mean, come on, you think a kid can survive on his own after several years? Nope. Moving on…_

_It seems his nephew is suffering from some kind of multiple personality-schizo-kind of thing. I knew it! No kid can be so perfect! Blah! It makes me sick! Sick, I tell you!_

_**CRASH!**_

…_I'm okay… The story's actually kind of sad, though. It seems Clyde's father was none other than Jon, Sportadorka's late brother. After his death, the boy sort of shut down and went into a funky, fresh new mindset by joining with… the __**televison**__ set! Hahahaha! I mean… too bad. _

I guess ol' green eyes way of coping with the loss was becoming someone fictitious. Someone he knew well in the world of the almighty tube. Don't know why anyone would want to cope that way and I sure as heck don't know why or how the boy's disease got out of control. I wish Sporty knew more about it but I guess I'm gonna have to work with what I've got so far. 

_**CLICK!**_

…_Me again. Hi. Okay, now here's a really interesting tidbit I may have forgot to mention. Seems that Sportadoofus wasn't supposed to be Number 10. At all! Berto was first in line to be the next hero of the family but after he went AWOL, Jon was next in line. Did a good job, I guess, until his untimely death. Sporty took up the mantle soon after and a year later, came over here to LazyTown because of that no good, pink, cheerleader! Gaaahhhh! _

_**CRASH! **_

BANG!  


…_I did it again. Sorry. His homeland seems nice, if you're into ridiculous outfits, senseless jumping around and noisy activity! Yuck! Looks like with all this information at my disposal, I'm going to rewire Sporty's mind and make him go cuckoo! Hahahahaha! Oh, I'm a naughty boy! Naughty! Naughty! Naughty!_

_**SPANK! **_

SPANK!

SPANK! 

At that moment, something inside Robbie made him click. He stopped the tape recorder and carefully set it down next to his unfinished piece of cake and stared out into nothingness. His eyes were still, his stomach was churning and his devious grin was slowly trembling into a disheartened frown. The villain was confused as to why he was starting to feel sympathetic for the blue sports elf and began to shake.

"I… I can't do this to him." He said to himself. "…What… what was I thinking? Sure, I may not like the guy but…"

Hearing his own voice on the tape recorder literally made Robbie feel sick to his stomach. Why would he plan to break the mind and spirit of LazyTown's most beloved hero after all the hardships he had gone through in his life? For a man who gives his all each and every day to protect the townspeople without ever asking for anything in return, why would he have to pay for the so-called "wrong-doings" towards Robbie by having his most painful memories exposed and used against him for the sole purpose of driving him to the brink of insanity?

"No!" Robbie shook his head, determined to snap out of his moral breakthrough. "He's my enemy! My nemesis! My, uhh…"

Robbie breathed heavily for a few moments before finally letting off one big sigh that helped clear his mind. He remained still for another moment then picked up the tape recorder again.

"It's not fair." He whined. "I was so close to finally breaking him and now…"

Without hesitation, Robbie flung the tape recorder across the field and watched it shatter into several pieces as it knocked into another billboard.

"That's it." He said softly. "I'm done. No more."


	19. Pasts Revealed, Feelings Explored

**_A/N: Sorry for the delay. The Document manager HATES me! Anyhoo..._**

**Chapter 19**

Back in CrazyTown, Stephanie, Astral and the Professor continued talking throughout the night. Although things were calm now, Stephanie and the old man knew Remus' threat was still at large.

"So how do I take him out again?" Stephanie asked. "Should I combine the Trinity crystals like before?"

"I don't think it would do much damage this time around." Astral shook his head. "He will have no doubt learned to fight against its power. However, it wouldn't hurt to try."

The Professor sighed. "Oh, man. Thereth gotta be thomething we can uthe to thtop him."

The air was silent for a moment until Astral came to a conclusion. He reached into his robe and pulled out a gold key of some sort. Stephanie and the Professor exchanged glances then back over to the old man.

"What is that?" Stephanie asked.

"The key to Mutari." Astral said softly.

"Key to what?"

"It's a place I've tried very hard to forget. It's a lost city of gold inhabited by individuals who know little of the outside world. They're led by the wisest, most admirable magicians known to man. They specialize in harnessing the powers of the elements to help better their world by combining their magic with anything that will suit their needs."

Stephanie thought for a moment and gasped. "Wait a minute… Astral, is that where you're from?"

"…Yes." The old man hesitated. "I was a member of their council before I came into possession of the Earth amulet. When I was driven to madness, they banished me to HazyTown where I began my rampage. That's when--"

"When Number Nine stopped you." Stephanie remembered the events she witnessed in the cave of despair. "Then that means they must have the other three amulets."

"I'm afraid not. When they learned I would not part with the amulet, they scattered the remaining three across several parts of the globe to prevent incidents like mine. I was lucky enough to have kept my key to the city."

The Professor scoffed. "You ekthpect uth to believe that!? They hid the other three amuleth from cuckooth like you and thomehow one of 'em ended up in _your_ neck of the woodth!?"

"It's all coincidental, Professor. I didn't know the Fire amulet would be there hidden beneath the cave." Astral defended himself.

"So what now?" Stephanie asked. "Do we go looking for the other two?"

"If we are to prevent Remus from finding the last two amulets, then we have no other choice. I will return to Mutari and speak with the council myself. Perhaps they know their location. You, on the other hand, are going straight back to LazyTown first thing in the morning."

"It _is_ morning."

"You know what I mean."

As everyone turned in for the rest of the night, Stephanie climbed up the stairs and headed for her room when she suddenly heard a faint rattle coming from Clyde's room. She stopped outside his door for a moment then heard the noise again, prompting her to go in. She could see him tossing and turning in his bed, sweating and mumbling to himself and slowly crept his way.

"Clyde?" She shook him. "Clyde, it's okay."

"NO, RICHARD NIXON! DON'T DO IT!" He shouted before he noticed the concerned look on Stephanie's face. "…S-Stephanie?"

She nodded and sighed from relief as Clyde tried to catch his breath. "You were having a nightmare… I think."

"Nightmare…" He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked out the window. "…I wish it was."

Stephanie took Clyde by the hand and sat next to him, waiting to finally hear his story. After a few moments, Clyde nodded and took a deep breath.

"It happened after my dad died." He began. "The building caught fire and he was so determined to save everyone in time before it collapsed. Mom and I were the first to get to safety and then uncle Sporty and everyone else who was inside. Soon the fire got worse and my father had to do one last check to see if he got everyone but I wouldn't let him. I pleaded with him, _begged_ him not to go but he said it was his duty. After a while, the building collapsed. When the firefighters extinguished the blaze and cleared the wreckage, they found my father's body holding that of a child's."

"Oh my God…" Stephanie put a hand to her mouth in shock.

"I didn't know how to take it. Of course I was only eight at the time, so what child that age could? I practically shut down and stopped believing in everything my father ever taught me. I didn't want to be a hero. If things like that could happen to me and innocent bystanders, then what's the point? So I skimped on my training and pretty much isolated myself from others."

"So where did the… _y'know_… come from?"

"Haven't you guessed?" He chuckled. "Television. I know it sounds strange and utterly predictable but it's true. I would watch any program that was on at the time and glue myself to it. I wouldn't budge for anything. I'd pretend I was those people I was watching on the screen or that I lived in that time period they were in. It was like my happy place. I was… huh… _lazy_."

Stephanie couldn't help but grin. "So then what?"

"I stayed that way for a while. I'd mimic their actions, recite one-liners and quote my favorite scenes but nothing too extreme… until that one day… when mother came down with a rare illness and took her away from me."

"Y-you mean…" Stephanie's jaw trembled. "…You lost _both_ of your parents? Just like…"

"Just like you, Steph." He nodded. "And when that happened, my mind suddenly went blank. And there to fill in for me were all the various characters I had so longed to be. I was out of control. I was practically driving myself to the brink of insanity. When they gave me the drugs to calm me down and silence the voices, I realized I no longer had a purpose. But then Uncle Sporty took me in and showed me that no matter who comes and goes in my life, I will always be a hero in their eyes if I really work at it. That I should always live by their example and set some new ones to brighten the future of our people. I knew then that I really was destined to be a hero just like my dad and uncle. And I wasn't going to let this newly developed mental illness get in my way."

"…But?" Stephanie could see Clyde biting his lip.

"…But I let it anyway. Without the drugs to calm me down, my mind would try to take over. So I would try to suppress every voice and every thought that would suddenly arise. When things got too tense for me to handle, I would sometimes lose control."

Stephanie nodded, suddenly remembering. "Like when you did with Terrance."

"Yeah."

Stephanie remained quiet for another second and looked into Clyde's shimmering green eyes. "Then why do I get the feeling I'm part of the problem?"

"Because…" He took her by the hand. "…When I first got here, I didn't know you that well. But when we started hanging out more and more, I got to see a kind of happiness and unworried spirit inside you that I never thought could exist. When you told me your secrets, I couldn't help but feel like… I knew you all my life. And the thought of telling you _my_ secret only caused me to panic and believe that you would suddenly think less of me. So I tried to bottle up my emotions and pretend that I didn't care about you as much as I really do."

_**A/N: You're reading this, right? So you know how much this is killing me. KILLING ME! **_

At that moment, Clyde put his hand on Stephanie's face and wiped a tear from her eye as she sniffled and giggled softly. She placed her hand on his and moved in closer, actually feeling the hard pounding of his heart. The two wrapped each other in a tight embrace then locked eyes once more.

"I'm sorry." He whispered to her.

"For what?" She asked him.

"If I ever did anything to scare you or… hurt you. The last thing I'd ever want to do is _that_."

"You didn't"

_**A/N: All right, here it comes 18lzytwner so get ready to squeal like a giddy schoolgirl. **_

This time there was no one to stop them. Stephanie and Clyde slowly moved their faces inward until their lips—

_**A/N: Oh, hey! Did I mention that MST3K volume 12 is out on DVD now and that—BOOM!**_

Stephanie and Clyde slowly moved their faces inward until their lips met with each other's, releasing every bit of passion and affection they had for one another. When they parted, after what seemed like a blissful eternity, they hugged even tighter.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." Clyde blushed as he caught his breath.

"Yeah…" Stephanie smiled. "Me too."

"We better get some sleep."

With a nod, Stephanie got up from Clyde's bed and gave him another kiss before heading to her room. At last they knew how they felt about each other but one thing still remained: What to do about Remus?

Later that morning, Clyde and Stephanie boarded the Track One as Astral stayed behind with the Professor and the rest of the CrazyTowners.

"Are you sure about this, Astral?" Stephanie asked her old friend.

"I'm sure, young one." He said as he took out the Fire amulet from his cloak and tossed it over to her. "Take this with you. You may need it."

"The Fire amulet?" She studied the design. "But what about you?"

"I'll be fine." He reassured her as he then tossed her his Trinity crystal. "For luck."

"Yeah, you better take ourth too." The Professor handed Stephanie the CrazyTown crystal. "Ya never know what could happen!"

"You be careful, Astral." Stephanie said as she gave him a quick hug.

"See ya 'round, kid!" Jasper hollered. "Don't be a stranger now, y'hear!?"

As the two raised up into the airship, everyone down below hooted and hollered, waving goodbye to their friends. After a few seconds, the Track One released a burst of energy and headed straight back to LazyTown.

"We should be there in a few minutes." Clyde said as he piloted the machine.

"Cool." Stephanie tittered as she sat next to the green-eyed boy.

Stephanie and Clyde couldn't help but exchange giddy and lovey-dovey glances towards each other now that their feelings were out in the open. She fiddled with his hair and playfully tugged at his green shirt before realizing something.

"Hey, Clyde?" She paused. "Where's _your_ superhero outfit?"

"Oh…" He shrugged. "I've got it tucked away somewhere."

"Have you ever worn it?"

"No, not yet. I want to, though. But only when I feel like I'm worthy enough to put it on." He then gasped at the sight ahead of him. "…Like right now, maybe."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Look…"

Stephanie gasped and stood up to see the horrific sight that was awaiting them. As the airship hovered above the mountains, all of LazyTown could be seen with a forest of rock-like claws and talons towering above it. Flashes of green light and trails of smoke could also be seen, which caused Stephanie to ball up her fists in anger.

"Remus." She growled under her breath.

"Stephanie…" Clyde stood up from his seat as he went to autopilot. "I think we came back too late. Maybe we should go get help and…"

"No, Clyde." She shook her head. "If we leave now, there's no telling what else Remus will do. We have to stop him now while we have a chance."

"Then I'm with you..." He took the pink-haired girl by the hand and placed it over his heart. "…Every step of the way."

A smile of hope spread across Stephanie's face as she leaned in and kissed Clyde again. Afterwards, she looked out the ship's windows and clutched the magic artifacts tightly.

"Get ready, Clyde. We're going in."

_**A/N: Up next – Stephanie VS Remus! Round 2! **_


	20. Showdown In LazyTown

**_A/N: It's a long one, folks. But I think you'll find it rather amusing… or not. _**

**Chapter 20**

Robbie couldn't believe what he had done. Or rather, he couldn't believe what he would have done to Sportacus. He was determined to drive the blue sports elf out of LazyTown that he came up with a plan to delve deep into the hero's mind and yank out all his personal secrets in an attempt to use it against him and drive him to the brink of insanity. He was so determined, in fact, that he even conspired with Remus Tard again, despite their falling out a while back.

But when Robbie finally had Sportacus where he wanted him and went over his plan, something about the secrets and painful memories Sportacus told him made something snap inside the resident villain's mind. For once in his life, he actually felt sorry for his so-called "nemesis". The strange thing was Robbie didn't know why we suddenly loaded with guilt and remorse.

When Sportacus awoke the next morning, he almost went into a state of shock. The Hypno-Ray's effects had already worn off and when he jumped up on Robbie's couch, the resident villain came running in wearing a feminine purple gown and a broom in his hand.

"What!? What is it!?" Robbie swung a few times before noticing a disturbed Sportacus. "Oh, Sportadorka. It's just you."

"Robbie? Where am I?"

"Uhh… my place." He chuckled nervously. "You wanna get off my chair?"

Sportacus noticed he was ruining Robbie's beloved orange fuzz and hopped off. "Why am I here? What happened?"

Robbie's grin immediately fell. "What happened? I'll tell you what happened! I was _this_ close to finally breaking your spirit and driving you out of LazyTown forever when suddenly I had an attack of conscience!"

When Robbie waved the Hypno-Ray in front of Sportacus, the hero suddenly found a lump in his throat. "Robbie… what did you to me?"

"It doesn't matter anymore." He tossed the device back. "I'm done trying to get rid of you. I give up. You win."

"What are you talking about?"

Robbie simply turned his back and pointed to the exit. "You can leave now."

"Robbie, whatever happened I'm sorry that--"

"No_, I'm_ sorry. And that's the problem. Now go."

With a sigh and a nod, Sportacus headed for the exit while Robbie walked into another room. Moments later, Robbie returned wearing his usual outfit and started to disassemble his unused machine. The fact he had built two of them in order to attack Sportacus' mind and then not use them only made things worse for the villain.

"Lousy, no good Sportacreep." Robbie cursed under his breath.

Robbie's work came to a sudden halt when he felt a slight tremble in his lair. Sprinkles of dust came down on him while his lab table rattled with each movement. A distant thud then caused him to cower in his special corner.

"Uh-oh." He gulped. "What's going on?"

_**TWO HOURS LATER…**_

"Let me go! Let me go, man!" Robbie squealed like a piggy as he was being carried along the city streets inside a stone prison.

The rocky creature that carried him in his chest growled and kept his glowing green eyes on the road ahead. As it joined with more and more walking statues that marched along LazyTown, Robbie could see the other prisoners that were being held inside.

"Hey, Poodle!" Robbie waved at Pixel. "They got you too!?"

"Robbie?" He looked through the stone bars. "Is that you?"

"Robbie!" Trixie called from inside her own cell. "You jerk! What did you do now!?'

"Hey, I didn't do anything!"

It seemed that Robbie, Pixel, Trixie, Stingy, Ziggy, Milford and Bessie were the only ones being hauled around the town inside their own walking prison while the rest of the LazyTowners stood around helplessly on the sidelines. While some tried to defend themselves and save the kids, they soon suffered the wrath of Remus' dark magic by turning to stone.

As the army of rock giants approached the city hall, Robbie and the others could see Remus sitting on a self-made throne with Sportacus chained to a pole next to him.

"Kids!" The hero cried. "Are you okay!?"

"We're fine, Sportacus." Ziggy said gloomily.

"Oh, dear." Milford sighed. "It seems Remus has won this time, hasn't he?"

"That's right, Milford!" The gray-haired maniac said as he stood up from his throne. "Thanks to my masterful skills, I was able to regenerate my magic amulet, take a few years off my face and raise a fraction of my stone army. Impressive for a day's work, don't you think?"

"You're nothing but a big meanie!" Ziggy scolded.

"Oh, am I!?" Remus teased. "Finally I can finish what I started and the best part is that no one can stop me! You hear me, LazyTown!? No one! No--"

_**WHACK! **_

Everyone couldn't help but giggle as they watched Remus roll off his throne and land face first on the floor. The former superhero groaned in pain as he got up to his knees and picked up the strange object that conked him on the noggin.

"A baseball? And it's…" He then shuddered. "… _Pink_."

"Well at least we know you're not colorblind yet." Stephanie said as she descended from the sky on a hoverboard, wearing her hero outfit and cradling her pink baseball bat. "Looks like I'll have to hit the ball harder next time."

"STEPHANIE!" Everyone cheered for the young girl.

"Meanswell's niece!" Remus spat. "Yes, I remember you!"

The evil one charged his magic amulet and released a thick beam of green light towards Stephanie. With the use of the hoverboard, she was able to maneuver her way through Remus' attacks without harm. Everyone continued cheering her on much to his disgust.

"Shut up!" He demanded. "I'm trying to get rid of this pestering pink cheerleader!"

While Stephanie distracted Remus, the ladder from the Track One unfolded next to Sportacus, who looked up with relief.

"Clyde…" He said under his breath.

The boy in green slid his way down the ladder and helped his uncle squeeze through the chains. Though he wasn't wearing his outfit, he was still feeling pretty heroic and when his uncle got through, the hero in blue hugged his nephew tightly and patted his head.

"I'm glad you're okay." He said softly.

"Me, too." Clyde smiled. "Let's go stop this guy, huh?"

"Stand still, vermin!" Remus screamed as he kept missing Stephanie, who was starting to wear out.

"A little help, please!?" She called out before crashing into one of the rock giants. "Oh no…"

"Stephanie!" Sportacus sprinted after her, tossing over his crystal.

"Oh no you don't, hero!" Remus said as he blasted Sportacus with his magic.

"SPORTACUS!" Stephanie shrieked as she watched her hero turn into stone.

"Uncle Sporty!" Clyde rushed over to Remus, barely missing his attack.

Remus raised a wall of stone from the ground and knocked the boy to the floor while Stephanie swept up Sportacus' crystal from the dirt and combined it with the other two. The villain turned his head and noticed the shimmering pink light emanating from the girl and grinned.

"That's not going to work this time, I'm afraid." He warned her.

"Yes it will." She said, unleashing the Trinity crystal's blast.

With a wave of his hand, Remus deflected the blast and knocked the crystal out of Stephanie's grip. The three pieces separated as they hit the floor, causing the pink-haired girl to back away from her enemy cautiously.

"Okay, that's not good." She gulped.

"You've been a constant thorn in my side." Remus growled as he shrouded his arm with a stone armor. "It's time I removed you."

With his rocky extension, Remus grabbed Stephanie by the throat and lifted her up while Clyde came around, moving past the stone wall. As he saw Stephanie being choked and the rocky giants standing guard over the frightened LazyTowners, Clyde could feel the tension swelling inside him again and fell to his knees.

"No…" He rocked back in forth, fighting back the pain.

"C-Clyde…" Stephanie began to asphyxiate. "H-help… me…"

Clyde began to see everything in a daze and could hear nothing but a faint ringing inside his head. His friends' pleas for help were falling on deaf ears until Clyde looked up once more at Stephanie and saw her succumb to unconsciousness.

"Stephanie!" Clyde got up to his feet and charged over to Remus, pinning him against a pillar. "What did you do!?"

"Oh my…" Remus grinned. "…Looks like I killed your girlfriend."

Clyde took another glance at her motionless body and shut his eyes, releasing Remus in the process. The villain, as well as the LazyTowners, could see Clyde's hands shaking and his breathing growing more intense.

"What's the matter, boy? Too much for you to handle?"

For a moment, Clyde didn't answer until his shaking stopped and his breathing returned to normal. As he breathed in slowly and heavily, Clyde lifted his head up high and opened his eyes with a smug look on his face.

"Well HOOOOOWWWWWWWDEEEEEEEEEE!!!" Clyde started to holler like a crazed country bumpkin as he back-flipped away from Remus' attacks.

"Stand still!" Remus continued to miss the boy.

"Hey there, Jethro! Why don't you put that thar thing away and fight me like a real man!?" Clyde shouted as he picked up Stephanie and carried her away on the hoverboard.

Remus continued to fire at the boy and missed, further infuriating him. With a snap of his fingers, his rock giants marched off and attempted to bring him down on their own. Clyde hurried into the mayor's office and gently placed Stephanie into the chair before heading back out to face the enemy alone. Upon exiting, he soon found himself dodging one of the creatures' mountainous fists and immediately switched personalities.

"Ach! Ye bloomin' yankee!" He rolled along the floor as a Scot. "There's nary a rocky creature that can outmatch a greased Scotsman!"

Another pillar shot up from the ground, carrying Clyde into the air but he hopped off onto the first stony monster that was in reach. The creature jerked back and forth, trying to shake the boy but Clyde played it off like a rodeo while everyone who watched suddenly freaked out.

"He's doing it again!" Ziggy panicked.

"Milford, why is that boy having fun at a time like this!?" Bessie shrieked.

"I… I don't… I don't know…" Milford struggled to explain. "It's rather unusual."

Clyde timed his escape just perfectly and hopped off the monster as soon as another took a swing at its comrade in a failed attempt to brush him off. The explosion of dust and rock destroyed the creature and wounded the other. Remus smacked his head in disbelief until he found himself tackled and pinned to the floor, reminiscent of a scene from a children's cartoon about a chubby, honey-loving yellow bear and his bouncy friend.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hooooo!" Clyde giggled in his new persona before switching again. "_Punk_!"

"Get off of me!" He aimed his amulet again.

"Ooh! What's that!?"

Like an annoying child, Clyde swiped the amulet away and started playing with it, reversing Remus' spells and eliminating all of his stone army thus releasing the mayor and everyone else from their prisons.

"No! Give it back!" Remus demanded.

"You talkin' to me?" He looked around. "You talkin' to _me_?"

"Oh no." Pixel looked at the danger Clyde was in. "You guys, we have to help Clyde."

"We do?" Trixie gave him a funny look. "It looks like Clyde's doing okay for himself."

Remus pitifully attempted to tackle the boy but landed face first in the dirt. Clyde, being the silly rival he was, helped the middle-aged man back on his feet and started to chuckle.

"Y'know, you're funny!" He said in a goofy voice. "…Funny _looking_!"

From out of nowhere, Clyde pulled out an electric razor and shaved off whatever hair the old man had left then pulled him up by the underwear with just one hand. As Remus squealed in pain, the boy walked him over to a tree and hung him by the strap.

"Very good, Mr. Tard!" Clyde now turned into a game show host. "Now if you get this one right, it's a million points! Ready!? Good man! Now look up! Look down! Now look at Mr. Frying Pan!"

"What!?"

_**KLANG! **_

"Okay!" Clyde tossed back a rusty old skillet and aimed the medallion towards his frozen uncle. "Now how do I work this thing?"

As a magical green beam shot out from the gem, Remus stuck his hand out and called out for it. The magic beam then turned away from Sportacus and headed for Remus, who absorbed the energy with his hand. A large rocky fist, bigger than before, extended from the man and raised above Clyde, who helplessly looked up at the punishment waiting for him.

"Oh poopie." He sighed.

"Clyde, no!" The kids shouted.

But before any harm could befall the boy, a stream of fire suddenly shrouded Remus' arm and caused the shell to melt and transform into magma. Stephanie then burst onto the scene, taking Clyde with her on the hoverboard as they circled above the weakening Remus.

"Steph!" Clyde wrapped his arms around the girl. "You're okay!"

"Oh yeah!" She winked. "Now let's finish this thing!"

Using his magic, Remus was able to solidify his stony limb and levitate an entire assortment of rocks, stones and boulders before hauling them towards the two lovebirds. With Stephanie's quick thinking and expert maneuvering, they were able to dodge the attack as another blast of fire rained down on the old man.

"Not this time, pixie." Remus growled as he took to the skies with a swirling shield of rock protecting him.

Stephanie saw the old man and grinned. "Aw, is someone suffering from propulsion envy?"

"Give me my medallion!"

"Say please!" Clyde teased as he dangled the amulet around.

"Please."

"Okay." He stupidly tossed the old man his weapon.

"Clyde!" Stephanie gasped.

"Oops."

The former superhero laughed maniacally as he molded a gigantic spear and hurled it at the two. Stephanie simply held out the fire amulet and watched as it shot down Remus' attack and explode in front of him.

"No!" He growled.

Clyde suddenly got an idea and slowly stepped towards the edge of the hoverboard, ready to pounce on the old man. When they came close enough, the young boy leapt from the board and onto one of Remus' protective boulders.

"Clyde, what are you doing!?" Stephanie called out.

"I'm playing the drums!" He answered, doing just that with Remus' head.

"Stop that! Annoying child!" He tried to shake him off.

Frustrated, the old man shrouded himself with his green energy and blasted away, leaving Clyde to plummet to his death. She knew she was close enough to catch Remus but Stephanie had no choice but to fly after her beloved and let her enemy escape instead.

"You see what happens, foolish girl!?" Remus laughed. "This is what makes you weak!"

"Clyde, I'm coming!" She raced after him on the hoverboard. "Hang on!"

"TO WHAT!?" He cried as he fell.

"You haven't seen the last of me, LazyTown!" Remus' voice rang out once more before vanishing.

As Clyde continued to drop, everyone in town gathered around in watched in utter horror. Milford gathered the fire department and ordered them to set up safety nets in case his niece didn't make it in time. Luckily for everyone, Stephanie did make it as she tossed a rope over to Clyde, who caught it immediately.

"Yes!" She cheered as she came to a sudden halt.

Clyde dangled from the rope with both hands and looked down, noticing he was hanging above the townspeople. With a heavy sigh, he turned his attention upward and smiled at his pink-haired savior.

"Th-thanks…" He chuckled.

Stephanie simply giggled in response and lowered herself to the floor once Clyde got back on his feet. Afterwards, they hurried over to Sportacus, who was still frozen in stone.


	21. Goodbye Love

_**A/N: No crying after this chapter! I mean it! **_

**Chapter 21**

"Sportacus…" Stephanie ran her hand along the hero's cold, stony face.

"You can reverse the spell, can't you?" Trixie asked.

"I… I don't know."

As all the commotion went on, Robbie took the opportunity to make his exit and head back home. Little Gloria noticed this and walked up to the grouchy LazyTowner, putting her hand on his.

"Aren't you going to stay and see what happens?" She asked him.

"No." He sighed.

"Why not?"

"Just… leave me alone, kid."

With Robbie now gone, the rest of the more concerned townspeople huddled around their resident hero while Stephanie continued thinking to herself. Suddenly, Clyde noticed the three Trinity crystals on the floor and picked them up.

"What about these?" He asked, handing them over to Stephanie.

"I don't…" She then noticed Sportacus' crystal starting to glow. "…Know."

A ray of hope spread across the girl's face as she waved the crystal in front of the frozen figure before her. With each wave, the crystal glowed and hummed lightly as it passed Sportacus. Knowing what she had to do now, Stephanie held the pulsating crystal against the hero's chest and watched as its magic energy broke Remus' spell and return the blue sports elf back to normal.

"Stephanie? Clyde?" He looked around. "Is everyone okay?"

"Sportacus!" Stephanie gave her friend a tight hug.

As everyone cheered for the return of their hero, they then took the time to praise Stephanie and Clyde for their valiant efforts to save LazyTown. Despite Remus' escape, they could both feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Later that day, while the majority of the town was repairing the damage, Sportacus was in his airship speaking to his mother again via satellite.

"And he told you this?" Jezel asked her son.

"Yes, ma." He nodded. "Clyde's had several attacks this past week and says he's afraid he'll lose control altogether."

"Magnús, we cannot risk him hurting other people this way."

"He didn't hurt anyone, ma. That's the thing. He used it to save this town and Stephanie from danger. I _know_ he can control it."

"How sure are you?"

A long pause filled the room as Sportacus looked down and ran his hand along his face. He could see his mother's youthful face nodding as if she knew what he was about to say.

"You know what must be done, son. You have no other choice."

"But the town. I can't just leave them."

"It won't be for long. I'm sure they can manage."

"But Remus. He's still out there. Who's going to keep watch over LazyTown?"

* * *

When the announcement was made, all of LazyTown was in total shock. How could their beloved and most trusted savior suddenly leave them at a time like this? So long as Remus was out there plotting his revenge, they knew their town wasn't safe just yet. As the townspeople gathered together in the town hall, Mayor Meanswell desperately tried to calm them down.

"People, please!" He pleaded. "I don't like it either but Sportacus has every right to leave. If he says it's for the greater good, then I believe him. And I think we all should. We owe him that much. Besides, he'll be back."

"But what do we do in the meantime?" One of the townspeople stood up. "Who'll watch over us?"

"At this moment, I am strengthening and increasing manpower for our police, fire and medical departments to further ensure the safety of our town."

"That's not good enough!" Another complained.

"We need a substitute hero!" A woman cried. "One we can trust!"

Soon, everyone was turning against the mayor and acting out of fear. As this went on, Stephanie couldn't help but feel that for some reason, this was her calling. Despite whatever negative feelings she may have had, the pink-haired girl stood up and got everyone's attention.

"I'll do it." She said, alarming the mayor, Clyde and Sportacus. "I can watch over the town. I have the fire amulet, I have the Trinity crystal, I can… I can do this."

"What?" Milford's jaw dropped. "Stephanie, you can't be serious. You're only fifteen."

"What does that matter, Uncle?"

"But you can't keep a constant watch over LazyTown, you're still in school! I can't risk having you run around at every whim, juggling between saving people and your schoolwork!"

"I've had training from Sportacus. He knows I can do it."

All eyes turned to the hero in blue, who stood quietly for a moment before nodding in compliance. "I'm sorry, Mayor. But I don't think it matters. I can't stop her. And if you're against it, I know she'll do it anyway. If it means the safety of this town and everyone she loves, then she'll have no choice."

Hesitantly, Milford carried out the motion which was gradually accepted by everyone in the building. Though it may have seemed preposterous at first, the town realized they had little choice but to put their trust in this girl, who seemed so determined to protect everyone she loves.

* * *

Later, Sportacus showed Stephanie around his airship, instructing her how to use it and activated the voice commands. It didn't take the computer long at all to acknowledge and familiarize the girl's presence, which of course made her happy.

"So I guess that's it." Sportacus looked around as the Track One hovered across from them. "I know I can trust you with this thing."

"Yeah." She nodded. "And don't worry, Sportacus. LazyTown will still be here when you come back. Just the way you left it."

"Good." He leaned in and hugged her. "I'll miss you, you know."

"Me too, Sportacus."

"I'll see you soon."

Sportacus gave Stephanie a kiss on the forehead then exited his ship via the connection plank on the Track One. As the hero in blue took to the pilot's seat, Clyde hurried across and came face to face with Stephanie.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." She replied, almost trembling.

"So I guess this is it, huh? I mean, this is… _goodbye_."

"For now, at least."

Clyde sighed and shook his head, frustrated at the situation at hand. "You know, after everything we've been through, I can't believe I still have to go back home and finish my training."

"It's not just your training, Clyde." Stephanie placed her hand on his face.

"I know." He said, caressing her hand. "And when I come back, I'll be a different person. A _better_ person. I promise you."

"You don't have to. I love you just the way you are."

"I love you too."

Stephanie then put her other hand on Clyde's face and gently brushed her lips against his, crying a river deep down inside. Clyde held the girl firmly and inhaled her sweet smell one last time as his lips remained pressed against hers. When they finally parted, the young boy kissed the girl's hand and hesitantly let it go as he exited the ship.

"I'll come back to you."

"And I'll be waiting."

_**PLEASE EXCUSE THE AUTHOR AS HE TAKES THIS TIME NOW TO VOMIT AND SHOUT OBSCENITIES TO THE CHILDREN OUTSIDE HIS WINDOW…**_

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…_**THANK YOU.**_

Stephanie stood outside the doorway of the ship and watched as the Track One flew off into the distance. As a tear fell down her face, she knew deep down inside they would meet again and have a happy ending together. But for now she had a job to do and she wasn't about to let the people down. So long as Remus was still out there and her friends were still searching for the last two amulets, there was one thing Stephanie knew for sure:

"The war has begun."

_**THE END**_

_**A/N: That's it for the 2nd part of this ongoing series. When I come back, things are gonna get a little bit DARKER. More characters, more magic, more action, more mushy stuff (gag) and more secrets revealed! Oh and did I mention? It's gonna be a MUSICAL!!! Until next time, readers! **_


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